The Indonesia-raised, Filipino-American singer-songwriter’s music has always had an intimate quality to it. She wrote her close, folk-spun 2023 debut album Safe Ground in Reykjavík during the pandemic, a writing experience she calls very “personal” despite some input from her husband, the Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds. That first album provided a fertile test bed for ideas. Now, ideas have been fleshed out for its grander follow-up INHABIT.

As Sandrayati has settled more into her adopted home, her voice, creativity and her music has taken on a new gravity. “I dreamed of this sound before I even came to this country,” she tells us on a video call from her Reykjavík home. She “longed” for a grander sound for some time but perhaps hadn’t tried or had the right resources to unlock it. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.