Icelandic Music Blog
Dream Team? Without a doubt a valid question on first sight, given the fact that one of Iceland’s most popular musicians (Sóley Stefánsdóttir), a whizz-kid (Sindri Már Sigfússon) and a veteran of Icelandic electronic music (Örvar Smárason) join to work on a common album.
Högni Egilsson is omnipresent in Icelandic pop music. He has been part of electronic music pioneers and legends GusGus. Probably he even still is, but it’s never really safe to say, and at least at this year’s Airwaves he had been missed on stage during GusGus’ performance at Listasafn Reykjavíkur. He is (or was) also part of Hjaltalín, one of the most remarkable bands of the ongoing decade in Iceland.
On a day like December 12th you could typically expect Munich to be chilly, rainy and dark. However, when you have a look at the past years, people have spent this twelvth day of the twelvth month in a beergarden, rather than wrapped in blankets and pullovers. Even during the coldest hours, the temperature barely dropped below that point, where everything slowly but steadily begins to congeal.
Almost exactly four years have passed, since Sigur Rós played their last concert at Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt. Some festival shows were following, but beside that, there was no other way to experience the trio around front man Jón Þór “Jónsi” Birgisson in Germany. Now on 14.10.2017, the Icelanders returned to the same ground as in 2013. As announced, no opening act was brought, as I Break Horses at the last Sigur Rós concert in Frankfurt. Instead of this: four new songs embedded in a fifteen song consisting live set, devided by a break of 20 minutes.
It’s that time of the year again, and we’re so pumped for it. Probably the most intense party in Iceland is ahead of us once more: Eistnaflug returns to Neskaupstaður from July 5th to 8th and we will of course also do so! Their website tells us that this means only 1 month, 2 days, 13h and 37min of waiting from now. And as the line up has filled up meanwhile, it’s definitely time to have a closer look, check out obvious and hidden gems and get yourself in the right mood!
You won’t believe it, but finally we can talk about springtime. Sitting lakeside in the evening, shorts and t-shirt and a beer, what else? Maybe a fitting piece of music, fluffy and lightly? Well, we can help you out! And you can trust us, it’s a recommendation you better take into account: exactly in a week today, the nowadays six-headed Kiriyama Family will release their second record “Waiting for…” and we’ve been lucky to take a glimpse at the album beforehand to tell you about its greatness
Today is the day! Vök’s first full album “Figure” is finally there.
Vök’s history started with Margrét Rán (vocals/guitar/keyboard) and Andri Már (sax/synth) in early 2013 by competing at the “Battle of the Bands-esque” competition Músíktilraunir in Iceland, which they won (Previously winners were: Mammút, Of Monsters and Men, Samaris). Ólafur Alexander (guitar/bass) joined the duo in summer 2013 and Einar Stef (drums/percussion) completed the bunch in 2016. After their two EPs “Tension” (2013) and “Circles” (2015) and also signing a record deal with Nettwerk Records this Febuary, Vök is starting a new chapter.
With “Show me” and “Breaking Bones” we already got a little glimpse of what to expect of the new record. And what can I say? They didn’t disappoint in the slightest.
The first time the electronic r’n’b and trap experiment GANGLY came into sight was in 2014, when their single “Fuck with Somone Else“ was published. At that time, it was not yet clear which known artists were standing behind that project, because GANGLY sent out the song anonymously. It couldn’t been kept as a secret for a long time until it was clear that the musicians Sindri Már Sigfússon (known from Sin Fang), Jófríður Ákadóttir (known as JFDR and part of Samaris or Pascal Pinon) and Úlfur Alexander Einarsson (guitarist in Oyama) are forming the group.
The most important, versatile, touching “instrument” in music you cannot pluck, bow or beat. Basically, you don’t need anything to play it and you can easily play it everywhere – typically in your car or under the shower by the way. But it needs a lot of talent and courage to raise your voice in a way to form a song that makes us laughing from joy, longing for something or shedding a tear.
Winter is still around. Fortunately, the post-rock band VAR can offer the perfect soundtrack for this time of the year. Their new album called Vetur (=Icelandic for winter) was just released in Japan in December and will soon be available also via Spotify and iTunes.