Isgaard - The Early Days (2015)

Isgaard was born in 1972 in northern Germany Husum. It was during her youth she discovered her passion for music and she was a bit surprised when it didn’t come easy for her to sing along with the popular pop songs that were being played on the radio. 
Her voice however seemed to be somehow “different” – so bright and clear – and it was only during the solo parts in the church choir, that she felt lifted.
From there began her first musical interest, musicals, such as West Side Story and My Fair Lady. It was when she discovered the British singer Kate Bush in the early 80s that she felt for the first time a sort of “home comfort” when singing pop music. 
One by one she covered songs such as “Wuthering Heights” and “Babooshka” with a nimbleness that impressed the people around her. 
She developed herself quickly and acquired a Music Junkee passion. 
But she still lacked the courage to take the next step and so after her graduation in 1992 she went on to study advertising management and typography in Munich. 
But fate did not leave her alone and so it happened that her boyfriend an amateur musicians who was fascinated by Isgaard`s unique voice, began to write songs for her and recording at their own home studio.
And so it happened as it should have. 
Encouraged by the public response to her voice, Isgaard decided in 1995 to go back north to study classical singing in Hamburg. At the same time she sang as lead singer for various projects. 
During this time her own vision of music became increasingly clearer. 
The feeling of being pulled between two worlds, the differences and the idea of ​​music as a new language and then translated into an idea of ​​style, borders on music that had its root influences from Isgaard`s youth (Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Pink Floyd). 
In 2000 Isgaard met the producer, composer and musician Jens Lueck who had a very similar idea of ​​music and was partly influenced by classical composers such as Bach, Bruckner and Debussy, and on the other hand, fascinated by musicians such as Peter Gabriel, Björk, Genesis and Pink Floyd. 
There they were again – those two worlds – and from two musicians and two worlds a project was developed. 
After an experimental phase of roughly one year, they both started to work on the first Isgaard album.
During this time Isgaard acted as guest vocalist with the project Schiller and sang in the chorus of the title “A Beautiful Day” and lead vocals in “Dream of You” together with Peter Heppner. 
Both titles achieved high chart positions and the album “World Tour” made No. 1. 
Additionally the album was awarded the Echo.
In 2003 Isgaard`s debut album ” Golden Key ” (Edel Records) was released in 14 countries and achieved various chart positions. 
As a result the record company she was requested go on tour as support for the group “Gregorian”. 
After a quick separation from of Edel-Records, Jens Lueck and Isgaard worked hard on the follow-up album “Secret Gaarden” which, after a period of 10 weeks of composition and recording, was published in March 2004. 
The singer Galileo went on a German tour with Isgaard as a guest vocalist which resulted in the release of a live album.
In 2005 thru 2007 followed various projects for Isgaard such as the charity single “One World” (together with the Polish singer Lidia Kopania and singer David Serame) for the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, a collaboration with “Zen Men” and participation Jens Lueck soundtrack to Stefan Erdmann’s first nature epic about Iceland.
During these years and without another album Isgaard continued to develop her vision of music. 
Almost without a break she worked on her voice and developed her high and low tones, as well as experimenting with ethnic sounds. 
All of this hard work will be reflected in the upcoming recordings. 
After an intensive creative phase, the album “Wooden Houses” was released in October 2008, with a few reviews using the term “vocal chameleon” to describe Isgaard’s voice. 
For the first time Isgaard felt complete and had now stylistically achieved what she had been envisaging for a long time. 
Interestingly enough this represented exactly the same ideas that Isgaards project partner Jens Lueck wanted for the album “Wooden Houses” himself commenting saying “this is also 100% what I always wanted to do”.
In the same year Jens Lueck wrote the soundtrack for the 2nd Island film by Stefan Erdmann and again used Isgaard’s vocals for many of the films scenes. 
In 2009 he released “Iceland from Above”, using Isgaard again for the vocals.
In 2010 Isgaard entered new territory. 
The electronic duo Rainbow Serpent asked the exceptional singer if she would like to sing some tracks on their upcoming new album. 
The experiment was worthwhile and in 2010 the album “Stranger” was released.
The title alludes to skepticism for the fans of electronic music with the use of vocals, but the subsequent reactions to the collaboration were fantastic.
In the same year the song “The Sky Is Wide Open” from Isgaards Wooden Houses album was used as the theme song for the audio book “Wind Dreams” by the bestselling author Jando.
2011 was followed by a further co-working, this time with the London electronic project Curfew. Jens Lueck and Curfew head-man Soenke Prigge composed together a very idiosyncratic album called “Curfew meets Isgaard – The Trip”, which in turn produced new vocal styles from Isgaard which had not previously been heard.
In the same year and for the first time, Stefan Erdmann and Isgaard brought the movie and music show “Iceland-film and Isgaard” to the stage, in which Isgaard sang live on the soundtrack. 
This show can still be seen in 2015.
Meanwhile Isgaard and Jens Lueck worked on a new album. 
Both wanted to expand the influence of sounds from the Ethno-area, and the lyrics became more and more important. 
In March 2012 the album “Playing God” was released, a very personal and fragile work that resulted in a move away from the previously chosen path of “Wooden Houses”. 
To back-up the album there were two video releases to go with the two singles “Playing God” and “Walking Down the Line”.
A few months later Jandos new audio book ” Sternenreiter ” appeared and more of Isgaard songs from the album Playing God were used.
In 2013 Isgaard’s producer Jens Lueck released a musical fairy tale for children (book and music/audio book CD ) called ” Die Fee und die vier Elemente ” for which Isgaard’s vocals were used for “fairy” and the voice part of the “air”.
In 2014 the 5th Isgaard album was released onto the market and was and titled “Naked”. 
The album’s title plays on the one hand on the vulnerability of people and on the other, the “truth” and “directness ” in their communication with each other, which can only be achieved if one shows their partner honesty, without any disguise.
The album has received many excellent reviews .

Tracklist:

01. My World (3:55)
02. Little Girl (3:47)
03. Save Me (3:55)
04. Anima (Remix) (3:31)
05. Ave Maria (3:19)
06. Prayer (4:54)
07. Loch Lomond (4:36)
08. My Story (3:48)
09. I Burn For You (Original Version) (3:54)
10. Living On Mars (Original Version) (3:38)
11. Prayer (Extended Version) (6:03)