Reykjavík, Iceland · jazz pop · bossa nova

Laufey

2 festivals played ↓

A classically trained cellist writing standards-shaped songs for people who found jazz through her — warm, wry, and quietly virtuosic.

Laufey is an Icelandic singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in Reykjavík to an Icelandic father and a Chinese mother, both musicians. She trained as a classical cellist, played with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra as a teenager, and later studied at Berklee in Boston. Her songs borrow the harmonic language and phrasing of mid-century jazz standards and bossa nova, but the lyrics are contemporary and plainspoken, often about early adulthood, self-doubt and unreciprocated crushes.

She built an audience largely online before releasing full-length records, and performs on cello, guitar and piano as well as singing. Her arrangements range from small combo settings to full orchestral backing.

jazz popbossa nova