RAKEL

Bio

RAKEL is an Icelandic artist working in song, memory, and atmosphere. Her music folds together voice, field recording, and emotion into layered compositions that feel both intimate and expansive. Since her debut EP Nothing Ever Changes (2021), she has become a quietly singular presence in the Icelandic music landscape, performing with artists like Nanna (Of Monsters and Men), Axel Flóvent, and Kaktus Einarsson.

Her forthcoming debut album a place to be (OPIA Community, October 17) is part diary, part landscape. Co-created with Danish producer and longtime collaborator Sara Flindt, the album is shaped by the acoustics of real places, her family's farm in Hrútafjörður, Sara’s Copenhagen dorm room, a friends studio in Aarhus, woven into songs that resist structure and resolution. Birds, clocks, breath, strings, soft synths, the creak of a floorboard, nothing is too small to become part of the composition.

RAKEL’s work doesn’t try to explain itself. It invites you into a space where thought becomes sound, memory becomes movement, and music becomes a place to be, for now.

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Spotlight Release
i am only thoughts running through myself

Record Label

OPIA Community

i am only thoughts running through myself

1. i am only thoughts running through myself3:59
2. rescue remedy3:27
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YouTube Videos
Press
Today's Top Tune RAKEL: ‘rescue remedy’
"RAKEL is steadily becoming a singular presence in the Icelandic soundscape."
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Music Reviews: BKPM, RAKEL, Alaska1867 and Birnir
"A wondrous concoction of plucky guitar, ethereal wind instruments, and synths, melded with RAKEL’s hauntingly beautiful vocals that feature sporadic autotune embellishments (occasionally reminiscent of Bon Iver’s production)."
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RAKEL, an emerging new voice from Reykjavík announces her debut album with the softly powerful ‘Rescue Remedy’
"Time ticking guitar patterns, succulent woodwind which converses around the vocal melody and RAKEL’s emotive voice, gliding deep and soaring high shape the tune."
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RAKEL announces debut album and shares new single ‘rescue remedy’
"The song’s texture moves between warmth and tension, mirroring what the artist calls “the moment you start to choose clarity over confusion.” It’s a quiet yet powerful declaration of release."
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Loud & Quiet Weekly
"a place to be (17 October, OPIA Community): The latest signing to Ólafur Arnalds' OPIA Community label, Icelandic artist Rakel’s debut album takes a soft-touch approach to field recordings, layered brass and subtle strings, as on lead single ‘rescue remedy’, if you need to slow things down."
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RAKEL Signs to OPIA, Shares new Single 'rescue remedy'
"rescue remedy is out now, the single offers a gentle resilience in choosing clarity over confusion and finding power in letting go."
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THE LINE of BEST FIT: RAKEL details forthcoming debut album, a place to be
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[Streaming]: RAKEL – “rescue remedy”
"Nothing is too small to matter: birds, footsteps, clock ticks, creaking floorboards—each sound folded gently into compositions that resist structure but pulse with quiet intention."
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