KRÍA is Elísa Hildur Einarsdóttir, a producer and musician who has, in the past, described her style as “ice pop”. She’s been making music for, as near as I can tell, about a decade – her oldest tracks on Soundcloud are from nine years ago, while her Spotify releases date back to 2018. There are a few brief interviews out there, but nothing recent and she hasn’t posted on her Facebook page in a couple of years, so I’m not sure if she’s still active, or at least if she’s still active as KRÍA. Which is too bad, because her music is fascinating.
“Intro” kicks us off, an oxy-haze question hanging in the air, “if I close my eyes… and count to five… will it still be there…?” As we move forward, things stay trippy, dry beats and simple synths overlaid with vocals that are sometimes eerie, others ethereal. Is “experimental pop” a thing? If not, it should be. “Safety” is my favorite track, with it’s intermittent dance beat and at times dissociated vocals keeping you at an arm’s length while still leading you along gently, if not hand-in-hand than at the very least with fingers touching to ensure a hint of connectedness.
Varp is on Spotify, as well as on KRÍA’s Bandcamp page HERE. Vinyl copies are still available on Bandcamp as well, though it appears this only came out in an edition of 10 copies, so get it while you can.