Fittingly for a Sunday, here is something mellow. The lovely Myrra Rós, playing her song “Sail On” in Aarhus, Denmark, supported by all her family (both related by blood and spiritually). Enjoy your day.
Even though we are having some kind of work-related hiatus, our favourite island and it’s quirky inhabitants are restless as usual. So, in no particular order, here are a couple of happenings from the land of ice:
First of all, Reykjavik’s biggest and best music festival, the Iceland Airwaves, have finally launched their new website. Vist and rejoice!
Speaking of new websites, the lovely ladies (and lads) that are Amiina also have introduced a new homepage (to accompany the release of their upcoming album “Puzzle”), where you can download the new song “Over and Again” for free. Free, that is.
Plus, Amiina are among the bands that will play the Icelandic Music Weekend , part of my hometown Dublin’s biggest theatre- and arts festival, the Absolut Fringe Festival. Also playing are Olöf Arnalds and our friends FM Belfast, and the Sonic Iceland-boyz are actually planning to cover this event with words and pictures. Stay tuned!
Image: Absolut Fringe
And last but by no means least, the good guys from SIRTV have released the latest installment of the Sleepless in Reykjavik-webTV-series, which I have added for your convenience below.
The Sleepless In Reykjavik WebTv Series – Episode 3 from Gussi – Sleepless In Reykjavik on Vimeo.
Enjoy the weekend, and stay save. Bless!
As you may have noticed, there’s not much going on here at the moment. This has nothing to do with the fact that Iceland bored us so much that we don’t want to have anything to do with it, it has something to do with myself trying to make sense of my notebook full of scribbled notes (some scribbled down while drunk and/or super-tired), Kai reviewing his 5000 pictures and both of us coming up with the finalised website. Plus, we both have to earn money to buy bread, tea and beer. Hence, nothing funky to report here on the blog at the moment. Except that I have conjunctivitis, but this is completely unrelated to anything except that it makes my eyes look like they did back in Reykjavik in June.
But we are not idle, so please bear with us until we release the full report/magazine/interview-log/something-the-world-has-never-seen soon.
In the meantime, why not pay a visit to the blog of Tina Bauer, German journalist and photographer living in Reykjavik, who interviewed us both. The full interview (in German and English) is here.
Some of you may have watched the last season of Sleepless in Reykjavik, a web TV show about (ta-daa!) the Icelandic music scene. The previous season focused more on Icelandic metal and hardcore, because that’s the background of initiator and main man Gunnar B. Gudbjornsson, a.k.a. Sir Gussi. But the new and fresh season, of which the newest show was released just a couple of days ago, aims -like your humble servants here – at portraying all current dynamics in the Icelandic music scene. So the two shows aired so far contain interviews with such illustrious artists as Oli Arnalds, Reykjavik! and the mighty Solstafir.
Here’s the second installment, featuring a certain rock show / video-shoot in a place named Kaffibarinn, so see for yourself if you can spot the Sonic Iceland-boys here:
The Sleepless In Reykjavik WebTv Series – Episode 2 from Gussi – Sleepless In Reykjavik on Vimeo.
Everyone’s favourite former string quartet Amiina (now enhanced to a 6-piece thanks to Kippi Kaninus) will play the very pleasant Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire, south of Dublin on Saturday, the 24th of July. And they are not alone on stage:
“For the Festival’s 10th Anniversary, Amiina are joined by two of Ireland’s brightest contemporary stars; Kerryman Donal Dineen, the visionary DJ, world music adventurer and film maker, and Dubliner Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, traditional and experimental fiddle player, whose breadth of understanding of Irish traditional music is unparalleled.”
This looks very promising, so if you should happen to be in Ireland at the time why not come along. Tickets are at a rather pricey 28 Euros, but you get all the colourful surroundings of the festival included. Sonic Iceland will also try to catch the guys for a short interview.
In the meantime, here are Amiina, performing at last weeks Iceland Inspires-concert in Reykjavik. And by the way, there’s a new album coming up…
Amiina from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.