To know the discography of Laufey, the 27-year-old Icelandic singer who, over the past three years, has become a sensation for her rich vocals, orchestral accompaniments, and jazz-inflected ballads to love and womanhood alike is to know that her work defies easy categorization. So when the artist and Junia Lin, her twin sister and creative director, approached entertainment architecture studio Stufish to create Laufey’s third and biggest tour yet, the duo had a trove of inspiration to share.
At the time, recalls Stufish partner and registered architect Ric Lipson, “She had an idea that the album cover might be a clock, but we hadn’t seen that yet. They just knew that it was going to be whimsical,” he says of Laufey’s latest album, “A Matter of Time,” which was released this past August.
“Laufey staggered the world of jazz and pop, and like most artists, came with a series of reference images to outline the arc of the performance,” he says. Among those that Laufey and Junia presented to Lipson and Stufish senior designer Zarya Vrabcheva were, “everything from Busby Berkeley movies, to Old Hollywood opera sets, fashion shows, jewelry…a world of beautiful whimsy,” he recalls. But “an overarching theme of time” was among the performer’s biggest inspirations for her 43-show arena tour.
To translate that for the stage, Lipson and Vrabcheva created a magical world to transcend reality for the duration of the singer’s five-act concert. “We’ve come through an architectural education,” explains Lipson. “What we really care about is the physicalization of emotion, how to put a physical form to it.”
As Laufey serenades her audience, the “world” around her changes: first the stage is a ballroom, that evolves into a jazz club, and even a Busby Berkeley-inflected dreamscape with a dramatic staircase and costumed dancers. All the while, the instrumentation constantly evolves: guitars—electric and acoustic—a grand piano, cello, and a jazz quartet are just a handful of what the audience experiences over the performance’s five acts. “It’s sort of an opera,” says Lipson.
