Westman Islands (Iceland) raised and born musician Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson has been releasing music under the Júníus Meyvant moniker for few years. This year Júníus finished the making of his sophomore album, "Across the Borders", with musician and engineer Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson (Erlend Oye, Ásgeir, Hjálmar) in Hljóðriti Studio.
The eleven-track album is due for release in early 2019. I had the honor to already hear it and must say that I am absolutely in love with this record! Listen to the two advance singles "Let it pass" and "High alert" to get a first impression.
Júníus Meyvant shares his 10 favorite albums of 2018:
1) Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food
2) MGMT - Little Dark Age
3) Blood Orange - Negro Swan
4) Cola Boyy - Black Boogie Neon
5) Teitur Magnússon - Orna
6) Muddy Monk - Longue Ride
7) Ólafur Arnalds - Re:member
8) Parquet Courts - Wide Awake
9) Flavien Berger - Contre Temps
10) Valdimar - Sitt Sýnist Hverjum
Júníus Meyvant "High Alert" (audio):
Júníus Meyvant "Let it pass" (audio):
Júníus Meyvant "Mr. Minister Great" (live session):
Júníus Meyvant biography:
In his early twenties Unnar stumbled upon a beat-up guitar at his parents’ house and started noodling around. By playing the guitar he managed to tame his inner beast and his sense for songs and melodies burst like rockets. The uncontrollable urge for writing music and constant flow of ideas kept him tossing and turning every night and day forever and a day. For a while he filtered his ideas through a band that didn’t live up to his creative requirements, so he decided to undertake his alter ego Júníus Meyvant.
Júníus Meyvant’s afflicted, concise, melodic and rich take on freaky folk pop has a highly familiar and soulful feel to it and a hint of attitude. Júníus’ wide sound pallet is all embracing and made up with his sultry voice, sizzling guitars, pummeling rhythms topped with washes of horns, synths and mellotron. Drawing comparisons to Sam Cooke, Charles Bradley, The Rolling Stones and Devendra Banhart the thirty something musician has a few singles, one EP and one LP under his sleeve.
2014 was the year he premiered his award winning and critically acclaimed debut single “Color Decay” via Record Records. The single garnered much praise in his homeland and furthermore in international publications such as KEXP, NPR and Gaffa. In the following year Júníus received the Icelandic Music Awards for the Best Single and Newcomer of the Year. After successful tours in Europe and the US (including performances at Roskilde Festival in Denmark and Bumbershoot in Seattle) Júníus released his debut full length, Floating Harmonies, in 2016.
Júníus Meyvant website: http://juniusmeyvant.com/home
