Pascal Pinon is a musical group from

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a pop ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

consisting of twin sisters Ásthildur and

Jófríður Ákadóttir Jófríður Ákadóttir (born 4 August 1994) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist known as JFDR and is a founding member of the musical groups Samaris (band), Samaris and Pascal Pinon (band), Pascal Pinon. She ha ...

.Monger, James Christopher
Pascal Pinon Biography
,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

. Retrieved 5 May 2013

History

In 2009, when they were 14 years of age, the Ákadóttir sisters (along with Halla Kristjánsdóttir and Kristín Ylfa Hólmgrímsdóttir) formed the group. The name is a reference to the early 20th century circus performer

Pasqual Piñón Pasqual Piñón (1889–1929), known as The Two-Headed Mexican, was a performer with the Sells-Floto Circus in the early 1900s. A railroad worker from Texas, Piñón was discovered by a sideshow promoter whose attention had been caught by a large b ...

.Sendra, Tim
''Pascal Pinon'' Review
,

. Retrieved 5 May 2012 The group described their music as " ...simple and honest, filled with both melancholy and optimism. We hope to make music that can inspire, soothe heartaches and warm you inside."Balitro, Polly

,''Pascal Pinon'' Dreck Magazine 13 August 2013 Pascal Pinon songs are sung in their native

Icelandic language Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely r ...

as well as

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

. The sisters have cited

Tegan and Sara Tegan and Sara () are a Canadian indie pop duo formed in 1998 in Calgary, Alberta. The band is led by identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both musicians are songwriters and multi-instrumental ...

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

, Joni Mitchell, and Sinead O'Connor as influences. Jófríður Ákadóttir is the main songwriter and singer. She usually plays guitar and sometimes clarinet and keyboards. Ásthildur Ákadóttir sings harmony and plays various keyboards, guitar, and bassoon. The sisters have also expressed a "weak spot" for

lo-fi music Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

, cassette tape noise and toy synths. The group has performed in Europe and the UK multiple times (2010-2014, 2016, 2017), as well as giving concerts in China (2011, 2015) and Japan (2012). In 2014 the video for ''Bloom'' (directed by Alisa Kalyanova) was featured in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

''. In March and April, 2017, Jófríður and her cousin, Hildur Berglind Arndal, toured Europe with Hildur playing piano and singing harmony. In 2017 Albert Finnbogason produced an album of Pascal Pinon songs with string arrangements by Ian McLellan Davis and vocals by Jófríður and Ásthildur. In November 2017 Jófríður and Ásthildur reunited for a headlining concert at the

Iceland Airwaves Iceland Airwaves is a music festival annually held in early November in Reykjavík, Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populat ...

music festival, performing with a string section. Since then the duo has occasionally performed in Iceland including a concert in an empty hall (due to the Covid-19 crisis) with their three other sisters in March 2020.

Music

In 2009 they released their entirely self-produced first album, ''Pascal Pinon''. It was re-released by the Morr Music label in 2010 and was described by

as "... a truly lovely record."Lewis, Casey (2013)
Pascal Pinon Talk About Their New Album 'Twosomeness'
, ''

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenagers. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since 2015, following ...

''. Retrieved 5 May 2013 In January 2013 Pascal Pinon, now a duo consisting of Ásthildur and Jófríður, released their second album, ''Twosomeness'' (produced by

Alex Somers Alex Somers (born March 7, 1984) is an American visual artist and musician from Baltimore, Maryland, who attended Berklee College of Music and Listaháskóli Íslands. Somers lives and works in Los Angeles. Previously he ran a recording studio ...

). The album received an 8/10 rating from '' Clash'', with writer Gareth James calling it "... a rare and beautiful treat... ", and it received four stars out of five from Allmusic writer Tim Sendra, who described the songs as "... very magical and wrapped in warm, slightly sad mystery... "James, Gareth (2013)
Pascal Pinon - Twosomeness
, '' Clash'', 14 January 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2013Sendra, Tim
''Twosomeness'' Review
,

. Retrieved 5 May 2013 Michael Cragg of

wrote "... these Icelandic twin sisters make gorgeously intimate songs... "Cragg, Michael
Pinon – Bloom: New music''
,

7 May 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2013 In 2013,

Nico Muhly Nico Asher Muhly (; born August 26, 1981) is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras ...

named them to a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

"Must List" of daily music, describing their music as "... strangely catching... "Muhly, Nic

New York Times, 16 October 2013 In November 2015 Jófríður described their album ''Sundur'' (produced by Ásthildur) as "... raw and real, minimalistic and a bit melancholic... " After its release in 2016, reviewers gave the album high praise: Tony Clayton-Lea in ''The Irish Times'' said that in ''Sundur'' "... the sisters manage to construct a minimal soundscape that is part sad dream, part tender magic... " Derval McCloat described ''Sundur'' as "... a stirring account of humanity, love, loss, hope and, above all, sisterhood... ", "Theirs is an imagination with few bounds, moulded by a musical skill that has learnt through experience that restraint can work to its advantage, and that less is often more... " and "... a series of magical moments at times shrouded in mystery, ''Sundur'' gives us a glimpse into the secret world of siblings, a fascinating phenomenon that transcends the physical." ''Sundur'' was featured as one of ''The Line of Best Fit'' Fifty Essential Albums of 2016. It was named as one of ''Play Repeat's'' 10 best albums of 2016. ''New Noise Magazine'' placed ''Sundur'' in their top 16 of 2016. Their song ''When I Can't Sleep'' was used in the trailer for the Apple TV+ production of ''Here We Are: Notes For Living on Planet Earth'' and in the Netflix animated film ''

Hilda and the Mountain King ''Hilda and the Mountain King'' (marketed as ''Hilda: The Mountain King'') is a 2021 2D-animated adventure fantasy film directed by Andy Coyle and based on the sixth edition of the '' Hilda'' graphic novel series by Luke Pearson of the same ...

.''

Related Projects

Jófríður was also the singer for the Icelandic electronic music group

Samaris ''Samaris'' is a genus of crested flounders native to the Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropic ...

. She was a member of the group Gangly and has also contributed to numerous musical projects including:

Ólafur Arnalds Ólafur Arnalds (; born 3 November 1986) is an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. He mixes strings and piano with loops and beats, a sound ranging from ambient/electronic to atmospheric pop. He is also the ...

Muted Protein Muted homolog is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''MUTED'' gene. Function This gene encodes a component of BLOC-1 (biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1). Components of this complex are involved in the biogenesi ...

Lapalux Stuart Howard, better known by his stage name Lapalux (short for "Lap of Luxury"), is an English record producer from Essex. He is known for his experimental use of texture and wonky, off-kilter beats. He has released three LPs to date and has r ...

, and

Low Roar Low Roar was an Icelandic post-rock/electronica project founded by the late American immigrant Ryan Karazija. Originally a solo act, the band later added Leifur Björnsson and Logi Guðmundsson. History After leading the California-based indie ...

. In 2015 Jófríður began a solo career under the name JFDR.

Discography

Albums

*''Pascal Pinon'' (2009), (self produced) *''Pascal Pinon'' (2010),

Morr Music Morr Music is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1999 by Thomas Morr. Most artists on the label fall into the categories of intelligent dance music, electronica and dreampop, but all reflect Thomas Morr's pers ...

*''Twosomeness'' (2013), Morr Music *''Sundur'' (2016), Morr Music

Singles, EPs

*''Pascal Pinon'' EP (2009) (self produced) *''I wrote a song'' EP (2010), A Number of Small Things *''Party Wolves'' EP (2012) Morr Music *''JFDR - White Sun Live. Part I : Strings'' (Includes Pascal Pinon songs), EP (2018) Morr Music

References

{{Authority control Icelandic indie pop groups Twin musical duos Icelandic twins Female musical duos Icelandic women in electronic music Musical groups from Reykjavík Morr Music artists