Introducing: Moyka

Over the last few days Oslo’s By:Larm festival took place – one of a number of larger emerging music festival’s that happen across Europe at the start of the year. Alongside Eurosonic it’s one I always pay close attention to, as it’s a good way of picking up on exciting new talent from other countries – even if I haven’t attended. These days discovery is so easy, with line ups published way in advance and streaming services making access to artists music so simple.

You might remember that last year I wrote about a new Norwegian artist called Halie - someone that I part discovered through By:Larm. Today I’m doing virtually the same and introducing to Breaking More Waves readers this year’s By:Larm discovery and yes, it’s another electronic pop artist from Norway.

Moyka is Monika Engeseth, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter and producer who has, in the last few years, been based in what seems to be the capital of banging Nordic pop: Bergen. There’s just 1 track on her Soundcloud, a demo of a song called Colder (updated 11/3/2019 - now replaced with a full version as the demo has now been removed) , but it’s way better than 99% of the demos you’re ever likely to hear – it sounds like a fully-fledged tune to me.

Big pulsing electronics, strong slightly ethereal vocals and a sense of weightlessness, calm and space are the things that immediately stand out with Colder. If you’re a fan of Aurora and Sigrid the chances are you’ll quickly fall for this, a song which finds Moyka singing ‘I love when it hurts, drag me under,” which to be honest doesn’t sound like a lot of fun from my perspective, but it certainly makes for a good other-worldly electronic pop tune.

Moyka - Colder (Demo)