Eliza Newman

Empire fall is the first solo release of Eliza M Geirsdottir , a veteran of the Icelandic music scene. At 16, she established the all-female critical favorites Kolrassa Krokridandi , later known as Bellatrix , a band that sent on to win Musiktilraunir , a competition for young Icelandic bands that has launched many Icelandic artists. This production is distinguished by simple , low key song writing, but there is till a hint of the quirky old and comforting Bellatrix sound in the backround. Eliza is a wonderful singer , as she has established before with the opera metal band Skandinavia , and her vocals work beautifully with the interesting arrangements where percussion instruments often play a large role , while Eliza plays violin , piano, and glockenspiel. the title song is a strong opener that graps the listener´s attention , but a personal favorite is the little gem Diamond. This is definitely worth checking out .
SBB. - Reykjavik Grapevine Magazine /Issue 13. Aug.24 - Sept.6

9 out of 10 Review in Street Voice UK Music Magazine!


ELIZA - Empire Fall: I really enjoyed this alternative rock album simply because there was something more to this than other releases in this genre of music. Aside from excellently played music the vocals from Eliza are outstanding. Imagine Kate Bush meeting Nico and you'd get a good idea how good she actually sounds. Unfortunately the masses will never hear this album simply because it's not radio friendly and that is a good thing as it would be wasted on these people anyway. In all there's eleven tracks are all great in their own and you'll certainly find much pleasure listening to them. For me tracks like the opening and title track 'Empire Fall', 'Hjartagull', 'Queen Of Solitude' and 'Still Water' made the album for me but for some one else their choice of best tracks might be different such is the high standard of work on here. This album comes well produced and nicely packaged too. 9/10
- Street Voice UK Music Magazine!

Collected Sounds

Album Review - Empire Fall

Eliza Newman once fronted Icelandic art rockers Bellatrix who had success in their poppy later incarnation. After a stint in the band Skandinavia she has recorded this solo record. She opens with the hard driving title song. Hjartagull is sweet and twinkles brightly. Newman gives a lovely vocal performances and sneaks in some Icelandic for nice effect. Change My Name is indie rock and shows Newman can handle that style still.

Eliza's violin, which colored Bellatrix's stunning records, adds a flavor here too. Her abilities as a solo artist should be in no doubt to those who hear this.

www.collectedsounds.com - Collected sounds

Kicking off with a straight-up rock delivery, between striking guitar and incessant drums sits a strong but routine vocal trawling the veiled tales of relationships. Title track 'Empire Fall' gets in to a deceptive start in contrast to this, and 'Deep Blue' is flushed with the sobriety of feeling and touched with the sense of believability many fail to deliver. Eliza is sure to evoke devotion from many a listener as the drawn out manner succeeds in shining.

With a fairytale melodica plinking behind 'Diamond' as it shuns the standard epic rock love song chorus in favour of a more unique approach and slowly toils, the process of exorcising demons has scarcely touched a chord quite so successfully as 'Hjartagull', the combination of lapsing instrumentals, Icelandic lyrics and poised execution hits.

A lighter mode through 'Secret Landscape' looks at the feeling of being overlooked with a more whimsical and beguiling turn, while 'Island' fires out a more vicious backing as vocals trickle along with less of an impact.

Yet again a more direct rock territory is trampled with 'Change My Name', which The Sounds would envy, while the pounding drums overshadow the vocals and disappoint through 'Still Water'. Yet, the ominously building and frosty vocals slide forth engulfing 'Stone Heart', pulling the album to a close with enthralling appeal.

Faltering in places as the varying styles fail to meld together, but she offers up an album which grows with each listen and hints at more to come from the former lead singer of Bellatrix.
- ThisisfakeDIY.co.uk

Icelandic rock revolutionary, Eliza Newman releases her debut album of powerful feisty pop perfect for independent women everywhere. Her wonderfully innocent vocal reminiscent of Nico, sizzles with intent in opener ‘Empire Fall’, yells out with rippling assertiveness in ‘Hjartagull’ then transforms again sounding heart-wrenchingly fragile in ‘Diamond’. This most talented songstress has produced a mighty fine debut she should be god damn proud of. JP - Crack Magazine UK

Having fronted Bjork’s label mates Bellatrix who were a critically acclaimed Icelandic band, operatically trained songstress Elíza Newman now launches her debut solo ‘Empire Fall’ on download cd.

No baby steps for Eliza as she gets straight down to business with the title track, which sounds like The Duke Spirit jamming with Garbage. The vocals are reminiscent of Shirley Manson and are backed by the bass dominated driving garage rock of the younger band. The arrangement on ‘Deep blue,’ evokes Lou Reed’s ‘Waiting for my Man,’ inevitably drawing comparison with the Velvet Underground’s 1967 collaborator. While the romanticism of ‘Hjartagull,’ is very much in the style of her major influence Kate Bush. Fairy like piano keys mimic Lionheart’s ‘In Search of Peter Pan,’ before she breaks into Icelandic with splintered atmospheric resonance.

The forthcoming single sees another change in style. The Breeders were a comparison often made with her former band Skandinavia and ‘Change My Name’ boasts a driving bass line that could have been delivered by Kim Deal. ‘Return to Me,’ is a delicate object that should be handled with care; a lonely lament for lost love with desolate piano and redolent strings. Over the deep throbbing percussion on ‘Queen of Solitude,’ like Christa Päffgen she could be drawling ‘shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather.’

On‘Secret landscape,’ Eliza lisps ‘she wants you to notice she’s dying to be found,’ with the cadence of a child. ‘Island,’ is like Ms Deborah Harry at her most mainstream. Exploring the themes of relationships and self-reliance in an other-worldly fashion she writes, ‘I fell asleep on a bed of soft grey moss and while I fell asleep someone stole my stone heart.’

This album needs some serious attention but it is worth the effort. A multi-headed beast, it is like listening to samples from the best female artists of the past two decades. She employs many of Kate Bush’s tricks in terms of vocal delivery and mystical narrative. Idiosyncratic instrumentation comes by way of glockenspiel, tambourine and violin and this gives the music an ethereal feel. Her dark sixties delivery follows Nico and the power pop comes care of Blondie’s iconic singer. Obviously the experimentalism of Miss Guðmundsdóttir cant be left out of this melting pot. Pixies bass lines ensure she rocks it up like The Duke Spirit while embodying the icy cool of Au Revoir Simone. Not a bad bibliography. One day she may occupy the same place in musical history. - www.subba-cultcha.com

Eliza Newman once fronted Icelandic art rockers Bellatrix who had some success in their poppy later incarnation. After a stint in the band Skandinavia she has recorded this solo record. She opens with the hard driving title song. Hjartagull is sweet and twinkles brightly. Newman gives a lovely vocal performances and sneaks in some Icelandic for nice effect. Change My Name is indie rock and shows Newman can handle that style still.

Eliza�s violin, which colored Bellatrix�s stunning records, adds a flavor here too. Her abilities as a solo artist should be in no doubt to those who hear this.

Posted on December 17, 2007
Anna Maria Stj�rnell - Collected Sounds album review

One time singer with Bellatrix, Eliza Newman returns with Change My Name, the first single to be taken from her solo album Empire Fall.

If you were to know that Eliza hails from Iceland, then you'd probably make an associative jump and expect this to sound something like Sigur Ros crossed with Bjork. Strangely, Change My Name doesn’t sound anything like the usual fare that comes from Iceland. Rather than ethereal soundscapes and vocals that drift and envelope like fog; Eliza trades in far more immediate sounds. This is essentially a cracking little indie pop single. There's a great little spiky guitar line that just keeps things simple while the drums drive things along in the manner of an incessant Motown beat. It's Eliza's vocals that shape the song however, switching back and forth between sultry indie nonchalance and wanton pop croon.

Return To Me is a complete change of pace and mood. Newman keeps things in a high vocal register as she coos over a mournful piano that is tangled in the wash of guitar effects and strings. The Icelandic influence is much closer to the surface here, but Return To Me is far from clichéd, it's simply a beautiful tune.
- Sam Shepherd - musicOMH.com 10.03.08

Eliza @ The Social 10th March

* Reviews

A singer billed simply as ‘Eliza’ is the closing act when I return for another gig at my favourite haunt The Social. I can’t help but feel that the casual anonymity of her name as it reads on the sheet just doesn’t really do justice to her musical pedigree and history; Eliza Geirsdottir Newman, to give her full name, is the former front woman of Icelandic all girl love-in, Bellatrix. With them she was inducted into the Biz form the age of 16, toured with Coldplay and received acclaim and success that, even in the freezing temperatures of her homeland, wouldn’t be sniffed at.



But here she is in her current incarnation, performing simply as Eliza and showcasing music from her solo album Empire Falls. The only residue lingering from the good ‘ol days being the confidence she brings to the wacky little moves that twitch from her as she sings. Her set is, literally, thumping and the tiny space can barely contain her eclectic hybrid of funk and folk which translates via frenetic violin chords. As I look around, its obvious people are impressed with the power behind her voice – I know I am. On the set’s standout track, Deep Blue, that voice is raw with emotion and the sheer passion behind the song’s delivery.



Eventually the songs blend into one another, the compositions following the same format so that, by the time Return to Me showcases lone keyboard and Eliza’s muted, Bjork inspired vocal, it is such a relief just to have a change of sound.



As the set winds to a close we visit a tune called Change my Name and on the way back out the intention behind the one word name Crystallized: new name, new sound, new rules.



By Andrea Maltman
- Cakespank.co.uk

Eliza 'change my name' (lavaland / imprint). In a word - stunning. If we had posters then our listening space would be smothered with Eliza's Icelandic features. Not wishing to jump the gun by saying so early in the year the best single of 2008 that would of course be a churlish thing of folly that said though certainly without doubt the best single to have graced these pages since that awesome and infectious overloading boot stomping debut by the Imperial Leisure at the tail end of last year. Eliza was one time face of Bellatrix (Icelandic imps, friends of Bjork, four critically acclaimed albums and so on) before calling it a day to pursue an educational itch - now back in her own right and with an album currently lurking amid the coolest record racks of underground retailers in the shape of 'empire fall' which we'll have to nab for ourselves. 'change my name' hits you like an impact bomb, sounding like a dirty desire laden Kim Wilde, Eliza purrs and prowls amid a hypnotically wound sinew tightening clockwork dynamic of austere patched in post punk styled glacial death disco weariness, fraught and unrelenting possessing a head locking blankly sterile numbness, this pulsating cutie should do a fair amount of damage on the coolest underground club floors. That said nothing quite compares though to the cowering in the shadows 'return to me' - this crushed honey will literally destroy you from the inside out. Emotionally forlorn, wounded and set to a delicately fragile piano motif, this desolate darling slowly gathers in unnerving stature. Eliza's last chance saloon styled reflectively bleak emotional exorcism is as cutting as it is touching, an unrequited rapture cast amid a sensitively frail church like persona .Devastatingly beautiful - need we say more? Joint single of the missive. www.myspace.com/elizanewman - Losing Today Magazine UK