Three For Under The Tree

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun on Christmas shopping, but here is a trio of recommendations for your holiday gift list:

#1: Amiina, Puzzle

More delicate melodies (zero-gravity is the term they use) and unusual instrumentation from their expanded line-up. Get it directly from the Amiina website. Their sublime first album, Kurr, is available through Amazon.

#2: Ólöf Arnalds, Innundir Skinni

Ólöf's second album has more instrumentation than her first (Við og Við) but both feature her wonderful voice and mature playing and songwriting abilities. She's even joined by Björk on one song! Amazon has both CDs and more.

#3: Pascal Pinon, Pascal Pinon

You really didn't think I'd leave them off the list, did you? You can pre-order their CD (or vinyl!) from Amazon, shipping December 7th. If listening to it doesn't bring a smile to your face, you might just have a lump of coal where your heart should be. Don't take my word for it: this is a great album and in the last couple of weeks it has been getting a lot of buzz from music sites all around the world:

The All Music Blog (UK)

Fast Forward (Germany)

Indie Shuffle (US)

Limewire Music Blog (UK)

Modern Mystery (US)

Rawkzilla (US)

Deathrockstar (Indonesia)

Eardrums Music (Norway)

I (heart) Icelandic Music (Belgium)

The Lakewood Times (US)

Track4 (Germany)

[Martha Looks Around] (Spain)

Life in Tokyo (Japan)

Caiyu Chen (China)

Musical Coma (Brazil)

ICELANDia (Japan)

Music Sailor (China)

And, of course, there is this review from ten months(!) ago:

Flippism Is The Key (Outer Space)

I suppose one could order this music as mp3's, but what would be the fun in opening that kind of present?