LOS ANGELES, CA- Danish singer-songwriter Fine Glindvad Jensen, known simply as Fine, has a gift for creating worlds with very little. Her latest single “Portal,” released on Escho, is a reminder that sometimes simplicity is all you need. It’s the third in a string of singles following her 2024 solo debut Rocky Top Ballads, a record that first marked her as a key figure in Copenhagen’s alternative scene and drew international attention.
“Portal” opens on a bed of soft bass and reverberating guitars that stretch into the ether. The track is stripped down, yet expansive, a song that feels like it breathes in slow motion. There’s an almost humid stillness to the sound, as if the listener has stepped into a forest clearing where time drifts differently. Fine’s vocals sit at the center of this atmosphere, delivered with a dreamlike tenderness that borders on the mystical.
The lyrics cut through the haze with striking clarity. “Would you even hold me carefully? Did you even care for me, baby?” she sings, her voice brushing against the edges of longing and self-doubt. These are not elaborate verses… rather, they’re direct and disarmingly poignant. They are the kind of questions that live in the quiet moments after heartbreak. Later, when she admits, “Maybe there’s no way out, trembling without a sound, still the truth rings loud,” … words that land all the heavier against the sparse arrangement.
There’s something enigmatic about “Portal.” It doesn’t build into a towering climax, nor does it overwhelm with instrumentation. Instead, it lingers, casting a spell with its restraint. The reverb on her voice and the sparseness of the melody make the track feel both intimate and otherworldly. It’s ephemeral and elusive. You can’t quite put a finger on what makes it so magnetic. But that’s exactly its power.
Listening through Fine’s repertoire, faint Portishead vibes drift in and out: a subtle echo of trip-hop atmospherics and smoky, nocturnal moods. It’s not imitation but resonance, the kind of influence that deepens her music’s sense of mystery. I was fully digging it, and it only added to the pull of “Portal.”
What seals it, though, is how much of an earwig the song becomes. For all its mystery, “Portal” burrows deep, looping in the mind long after it ends. It’s the kind of track you add to a playlist almost unconsciously, the kind you find yourself humming without realizing it.
As Fine prepares for a run of sold-out shows across Europe and North America—including a New York group show with Smerz, Erika de Casier, and urika’s bedroom—“Portal” serves as both a haunting standalone and a promise of what’s still to come.
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