Blog
The SONIC ICELAND AIRWAVES blog – day 3
Ah, gravel roads. How I missed you. Due to the fact that we had a rental car at our disposal, we welcomed the fact that we were not overly hangovered (the magic of Bæjarins beztu pylsur) and took to the countryside, leaving a surprisingly sunny Reykjavik behind us and drove north, skipped the tunnel to Akranes and rounded the Hvalfjord amidst bands of rain, spells of brilliant sunshine and heavy winds, almost alone on the road. We stopped for lunch in Borganes, where we also visited a sheep market, or a local gathering of people with sheep, whatever you want to call it. Some people even led their family sheeps around on a leash. I also spotted a mutt wearing his own little Icelandic jumper. They do love their pets here.
After that it was another two hours on gravel roads, driving through endless lava fields around Husafell and enjoying the incredible colours of the Icelandic scenery in autumn. Slightly tired, we were back in Reykjavik around seven in the evening, just in time to get ready for another show at Harpa. This time is was the turn of Ólafur Arnalds, who played a best-of set in the same hall as Mugison they day before. Óli had brought his usual string support, but I was delighted to see Janus from Bloodgroup setting up his own array of laptops and mixers on stage. The aditional layer of sound and programming that Janus provided made the whole set much more livelier and the songs sound much more diverse than on record. Ólafur himself seemed to enjoy it all, joking with the audience in Icelandic and English and introducing his fellow musicians – his demure stage behaviour a thing of the past, seemingly. A very enjoyable show of one of the best contemporary Icelandic composers.
Next up were baguettes (hamburgers were already sold out) from a booth on Hafnarstraeti and then Gus Gus at the arts museum. Due to the late hour (the band was on stage shortly after midnight), the crowd showed multiple signs and levels of intoxication, from leaning against the wall and starring into nothingness despite the massive beats from stage to what I can only describe as tribal dancing, the main action was definitively off stage. Due to the big venue, the impressive sound system and the massive crowd, the whole Gus Gus set looked and sounded like a bad Faithless-show ca. 1999. I have completely lost track of current line-up and releases of Gus Gus, so I’ll leave the googling to you. Show was good, though, if you like that kind of sound.
Our final stop for the night was the Sudden Weather Change show at Iðnó, the 19th-century restaurant/venue right next to the city pond. Since the departure of singer Ben Stacey, they have moved away from the three-guitar-wall of noise and added programming and loops to their sound, which takes some of the raw edge away, but makes their music much more comprehensible. So maybe this is the next logical step for their sound – the crowd, including many members of local music gentry like Jonsi and Ben Frost, was more than pleased.
Overall, the crowd turnout was much less then the days before, and the people that came to the shows, media people or not, showed various signs of disrepair. People fell asleep on the sofas in Harpa, and despite the energetic sound of Sudden Weather Change did many revellers rely on the walls of Iðnó to prop them up. Iceland Airwaves takes it toll.
Coming up today: Blue Lagoon and Frau Gudmunsdottir live. Talk to you later.
The SONIC ICELAND AIRWAVES blog – day 2
Day two was a nice one. We started our day with a strong coffee and shopping tour through Reykjavik. I bought books, yay – I’m especially happy that I got a copy of “Zombie Iceland” by Nanna Árnadóttir. And then it was already time for work, well, self-promotion: I gave an interview to a German film crew from Cologne production company Florianfilm, who were in Reykjavik to film a documentary about the Airwaves and Icelandic music in general. We met in the cozy surroundings of Hemmi og Valdi, and I was happy to chat about Sonic Iceland for half an hour, hoping that my hair’d look good.
After that, we had more coffee and a delicious vegetarian dinner – and then it was showtime again. We started the evening with a show by one of my favourite Icelandic musicians, the mighty Mugison in the newly opened concert hall Harpa, which is a stunning building right next to the harbour, designed by Olafur Eliasson.
The set was was incredible. Mugi looks more and more like an Icelandic Tom Waits with his fierce long beard, and he had completed his on-stage outfit with a wide-brimmed hat and a waistcoat. His backing band was equally impressive – the drummer behaved like a dog waiting for his master to throw a ball whenever Mugi was counting in a song and added a super-tight rhythm foundation to whatever song from whatever album came up. I had expected Mugison to focus on the Icelandic songs of his newest album “Haglei”, but we were treated to a best of-playlist. The new songs got a makeover as well, and so the first single from the new album, the eponymous “Haglei” sounded more like a Johnny Cash-track than the melodic pop-song that it the recorded version. The set finished with a mean, belched-out version of “Murr Murr”, which sounded very White Stripes-like and made all bums in the audience sway. All.
We then walked over to Bakkus, to watch the very drunken show of our favourite art rock band, Reykjavik! The guys were not only celebrating the release of their new album “Locust Sounds” (which you should buy!!), also was it guitar player Valdi’s birthday, so the band was handing out shots and shrieking out songs by the busload. Singer Boas got bored on stage and climbed over the nearby bar and hung himself from the speakers, so to say. Very sweaty and very good. The only thing they did not do was play my favourite song “Internet”. But they are forgiven.
After the show: more beers, and another hot dog. Stay tuned for more. Also more hot dogs.
Retro Stefson – for take away, please
While we are waiting for the next Iceland Airwaves shows to start, here’s a nice new video of Retro Stefson, courtesy of the Blogotheque. Enjoy!
The SONIC ICELAND AIRWAVES blog – day 1
Image by Tomz/Iceland Airwaves
Hi all, Marcel here. I am happy to report that Sonic Iceland is back in Iceland for the first time since 2010, covering the mighty Iceland Airwaves festival. I am not so happy to report that I had to leave Kai behind in Berlin, work obligations kept him there. I have my girlfriend Anne accompanying me, to help out with taking photos and organising stuff, so I’m not on my own when drinking Brennivin and devouring hot dogs. Which I have already started to do. Mmmhhhh. We also missed out the Wednesday, unfortunately.
Image by – ta-daaa – Kai
After meeting in London we boarded a nice, orange and white-aluminium bus with wings that took us to Iceland in three hours, courtesy of our partners Iceland Express. After a bumpy landing (thank you, rainstorm!) and the compulsory stocking of booze from the duty free shop we quickly acquired a rental car and drove through the bleak lava fields of the Reykjanes peninsula to Reykjavik, were we checked into our rented apartment and grabbed our festival-passes from the main festival office. We now have golden wristbands. Just saying.
Image by pallih / Iceland Airwaves
The first show of the evening was the performance of now-Berliners Retro Stefson, who had the huge crowd at the huge stage in the Reykjavik Arts Museum eating out of their hands. It seems songs like “Mama Angola” and “Kimba” have become huge hits, and the audience was happily dancing and singing along, and even forming conga lines. What I did found strange was main man Unsteinn referring to hands-over-the-head-clapping as “Do it the German way!”…
Next up was a quick pint in my favourite Reykjavik watering hole, Bakkus. Bakkus has expanded into the former next-door venue called “Venue” (which was shitty anyway) and now sports a second room and a stage, so it will be hard not to spend all weekend only here, especially as they run their own, not-Airwaves related music programme called “B Waves”. We watched the last songs of Sindri Eldon and the first songs of Gang Related.
We followed up with the Biogen-tribute show in what may become one of Reykavik’s best venues (again), the newly re-opened Faktorý. This palce had been know was Grand Rokk and had been closed the last time Kai and I had been here, but I was really impressed by the first-floor-stage and the good sound, which befits the fact that most of the festivals electro-acts will play here. The place is not big, so I really want to see what it looks like when James Murphy plays here tomorrow. In Faktorý, we witnessed the tai-chi-like on stage-antics of Futuregrapher before succumbing to the fact that I’m old and flying tires me, so we went to have some nightcaps in the apartement and went to bed.
Today, we’ll be giving an interview to a German movie crew from Florianfilm, who are filming a documentary, and will of course see muchmore bands. Stay tuned!
The SONIC ICELAND AIRWAVES Countdown: Part II
The festival kicks off tomorrow, but even for those who cannot participate, there’s FREE MUSIC! The good guys at the Reykjavik Grapevine have again put together a free compilation with loads of participating musicians. But, quoting the guys: “Don’t rip these bands off. Their music is copyrighted and stuff. Buy their tunes, go to their shows, splurge on merch. Don’t be an ass!” Download for free here.
The have also a whole minisite dedicated to the festival, fancy that!
Here’s some more music: our favourite Icelandic rock band, Reykjavik! are releasing a new album soon, which we think is hot. The cover will look like this:
And here’s a new song, entitled “Hellbound Heart”. Enjoy!
