Olof Arnalds
London St. Pancras Old Church
24th November, 2011

Candle-lit, idyllic and acoustically impressive, this ancient church was the ideal setting for the sometime Mum singer-guitarist from Iceland, who played 16 folk tunes over 80 minutes before a small but enthralled audience. As well as Icelandic-language tunes from her two albums and upcoming set, delivered in her inimitable warble, she covered the likes of Hank Williams’ Please Don’t Let Me Love You, visited medieval/ Renaissance times by way of Victorian folk ballads, including the music hall whimsy of Come And Join The British Army and the trad Irish lament of The Trees They Grow So High, and closed with a take on Springsteen’s I’m On Fire. Between, she amiably chatted, corrected herself after an extended tuning of her banjolele and cursing “oh fuck”, then realising where she was (!), and ad libbed amusingly on new tunes (such as Sudden Elevation), not least when she changed her guitar tempo to account for the striking 10 o’clock bell outside. As ethereal and heart-warming as she looks.