In The spotlight - icelandic musicians and groups interviewed:
Icelandmusic.is editor Paul Sullivan has throughout his career as a journalist, photographer and writer amassed a great deal of knowledge on the subject of Icelandic music. "In the Spotlight" is where he confronts artists and groups that are making the rounds and gets them to open up on the subject of their music and their recent goings-on. If you would like to be featured on "In the Spotlight", go ahead and contact us.
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Rökkurró Head 'To Another World'
Rökkurró was founded in 2006. Having been playing for a couple of months, they released a DIY EP and tried selling it in a small record store in Reykjavík called 12 Tónar.
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Gunnar B. Guðbjörnsson - Sound & Vision
Gunnar B. Guðbjörnsson started his film career at the age of 21 as an editor at a well established advertising agency, learning the ropes working on various big and small name adverts.
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10 years - A LungA Time Indeed
The LungA Art festival is a yearly event held in a small bohemian town on the east coast of Iceland called Seyðisfjörður. In the middle of July people gather in this small town of only 700 inhabitants to enjoy the melting pot of various art forms.
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Iceblah - The Blog That Thinks It's Icelandic
Meet Mark Ollard, one of the world’s several dedicated Iceland music obsessives. Mark first ventured to Iceland in 1988 - the year The Sugarcubes released their debut album Life's Too Good. In other words, he was here before most.
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The Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band - Iceland’s Funk Phenomenon
The Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band was originally formed in 2000 by Samúel for a set of live funk/afro/jazz performances in Reykjavík. The band released “Legoland”, a live recording from their debut concert, in 2000 and in 2007 reformed for a record called “Fnykur”, an old Icelandic word for something stinky, smelly or funky.
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Lára - Iceland's Newest Pop Queen
Born and raised in Reykjavík, Lára developed a love for music while growing up listening to her father playing and recording with legendary Icelandic band Grafík. Through him, Lára was introduced to artists such as Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Nick Cave.
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Ólafur Arnalds - Light & Warmth
Born in 1986, Ólafur Arnalds hails from the suburban Icelandic town Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics.
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Biogen - Icelandic Weirdcore
Sigurbjörn Þorgrímsson has been a defining influence on the Icelandic electronic music scene since the early 90s - first as a member of hardcore breakbeat outfit Ajax and later as Biogen and Babel.
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Dreamland - A Soundtrack For A Frightened Nation
Back in 2006, Andri Snær Magnason’s ”Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation” became the best-selling book in Iceland, winning the Icelandic Literary Award and the Icelandic Bookseller Prize in the same year.
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Mugison - Return Of The Mugician
Mugison makes music that ranges from gentle laptop pop to heavy, flamboyant rock. He started recording songs on his laptop in 2001 and in 2003 released the experimental glitch-pop album Lonely Mountain, which was released on Matthew Herbert's Accidental label.
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Seabear - Icelandic Fire Starters
Defying its humble beginnings as the lo-fi solo project of Icelandic singer/multi-instrumentalist Sindri Már Sigfússon, Seabear has morphed into a rambling experimental/indie/folk septet.
Joining Sigfússon (whose unassisted musings are now released via his Sin Fang Bous moniker which just made the American Rolling Stone call him the “Icelandic Beck”) are Guðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir, Halldór Ragnarsson, Örn Ingi Ágústsson, Kjartan Bragi Bjarnason and Sóley Stefánsdóttir - all working in a wide range of solo-, band- (Kimono, Skakkamanage) and visual arts-projects in their own right.
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Benni Hemm Hemm - A Liberating Change
Benni Hemm Hemm is the band of Benedikt H. Hermannsson. The band’s first release was the SummerPlate EP, in the summer of 2003 and the first performance of the big band was in 2004. In February 2008 the band recorded their third LP, Murta St. Calunga. The album was released in Iceland in June 2008 (on Kimi Records) and in Japan January 2009 (on Afterhours). In the summer of 2009 the album was released in Europe and the US (on Kimi Records) and later that year they recorded his third EP, “Retaliate”, Benni’s first collection of songs sung entirely in English and due out in April.
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kimono - Three's Company
kimono is an experimental rock trio hailing from Reykjavik, Iceland and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their sound mixes the darkness of the Icelandic winters with the energy of its summers and like the place of their birth they exude contrast.
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Daníel Bjarnason - A Tasteful Procession
Daníel Bjarnason studied piano, composition and conducting in Reykjavík before going on to study orchestral conducting at the Freiburg University of Music in Germany where he graduated cum laude in 2007.
Daniel works equally as conductor and composer and has worked with many different artists including the London Sinfonietta, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Nieuw Ensemble, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Musica Viatae and the Caput Ensemble. In 2003 he was one of the founders of the Ísafold Chamber Orchestra and has since been its principal conductor and artistic director. He regularly conducts at the Icelandic Opera and with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
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Leaves - Back To Basics
Formed early in 2001, Leaves began when Arnar Guðjónsson and Hallur Már Hallsson rented a house in downtown Reykjavík. They were joined by old friends Arnar Ólafsson (guitar, vocals), Andri Ásgrímsson (keys) and Bjarni Grímsson (drums) and settled on Leaves as a band name - a reference to Five Leaves Left, the first album of English folk legend Nick Drake.
Leaves played their first gig at the Iceland Airwaves festival in October 2001. A recording contract soon followed with London-based B-Unique records and then Dreamworks. The band played all over the UK. with bands such as Doves, The Coral, Electric Soft Parade and Athlete and supported pop giants Duran Duran in Reykjavík.
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Bloodgroup - The Hippest Nerds Around
Bloodgroup are known as one of the most innovative, powerful and entertaining live acts in Iceland, and they have been busy playing music festivals in Europe and America, as well as playing independent shows since the release of their debut album. Their second album "Dry Land" is a product of Bloodgroups studio sessions for the last year and a half and has been frequent on "Best of 2009" lists in Iceland. The album has be available in record stores in Iceland since December 2nd, and is scheduled to be distributed to the rest of the world early next year (2010).
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Hjaltalín - Here, But Totally Different
Hjaltalín combine pop melodies, male/female vocals and eclectic instrumentation to compelling effect. Their unusually large lineup consists of - apart from the regular guitar, bass & drums - a piano, accordion, bassoon, clarinet, cello and a violin. With seven members, it’s difficult to know whether to call them a small orchestra, a mutated and overgrown rock band or something else entirely.
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Klive - Bound By Form
Exploring the boundaries of the spectrum, Klive is a solo project of concrete sounds and synthesis. The man behind the project is one Úlfur Hansson, a 21-year old who is studying music theory and new media and who plays electric bass in the band Swords of Chaos. He has also played jazz and has created a number of sound installations with his sister Elín Hansdóttir.
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Elíza Newman - With A Twist
Elíza Newman – formerly lead singer of all-girl Icelandic band Bellatrix and rock band Skandinavia – went solo in 2007, when she released her debut album “Empire Fall”. She’s now all set to follow up with her sophomore effort, “Pie In The Sky,” which has already spawned two Top Ten hits in Iceland, including her first No. 1.
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Grapewire - Delivering Like Pros
Grapewire is an independent digital music resource. With their provocative motto – Create like A Genius, Deliver Like A Pro – they help artists digitise and sell their art. With such prestigious clients as the veteran Sugarcubes-owned record label Smekkleysa, groundbreaking indie label Kimi and acts like Björk, Mugison and GusGus the company has been quietly breaking ground since 2006. IMX talked to founder Einar Örn Benediktsson, former member of the Sugarcubes and one half of experimental project Gho
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gogoyoko - Fair Play In Music
gogoyoko was founded in Reykjavík, Iceland back in 2007 by musicians Haukur D. Magnússon and Pétur Einarsson, and developed alongside Reynir Harðarson, one of the founders of CCP Games and the original art director of the massively multiplayer online game Eve Online.
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Ben Frost Grabs Listeners By The Throat
The music of Ben Frost is about contrast; influenced as much by Classical Minimalism as by Punk Rock and Metal, Frost's throbbing guitar-based textures emerge from nothing and slowly coalesce into huge, forbidding forms that often eschew conventional structures in favor of the inevitable unfoldings of vast mechanical systems.
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Gulli Briem - Keeping A Steady Beat
Having started out banging on kitchen equipment at the age of five, Gulli Briem became a professional drummer/musician at 16 and was a founding member of the group Mezzoforte, who enjoyed massive success in the mid-80s with the top ten hit single "Garden party" and the album “Surprise Surprise”. He has gone on to produce, perform and play with bands as varied as GusGus, Björk, Madonna, Michael Ball, Fiona Renshaw, The British National Symphony Orchestra and Bubbi Morthens; record for musicals such as Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and various TV shows; and write classical and modern dance pieces (for example for the award-winning choreographer Helena Jónssdottir).
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Yohanna - Singing Sensation
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in October 1990, Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir (a.k.a. Yohanna) was singing almost before she could talk. She moved to Reykjavík with her Icelandic parents when she was just two years old and was soon after enrolled at a lauded children’s singing school, where she learned the basics of performing modern pop songs.
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Kippi Kaninus - Can Kippi Do It? Yes He Kaninus!
Kippi Kaninus is the alter ego of Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson from Reykjavík. He creates subtle multilayered electronica with melodic evolutions, microbeats, sampled instruments and manipulated sound. Kippi started small, with a self-released album in the year 2000. He made only fifty copies and sold them at his local record shop in Reykjavik. But as is often the way, from humble beginnings came great things. The follow-up, 'Huggin', was released throughout Europe and America, culminating in a tour of the US with fellow Icelanders múm.
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Ólafur Arnalds - Variations Of Found Songs
Ólafur Arnalds is well known for combining classical instrumentation with a raw indie aesthetic to obtain compelling results. His debut album 'Eulogy For Evolution', was highly praised by the media and music fans in Iceland and created quite a buzz around Europe and further afield.+ read more ι tell a friend
Riceboy Sleeps - Sleeping Giants
Known primarily for his haunting falsetto and other-worldly presence as the singer in Sigur Rós, Jón Þór (Jónsi) Birgisson has - together with his partner Alex Somers - been exhibiting artwork and staging exhibitions under the name Riceboy Sleeps for two or three years now.
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Amiina - A Noble Quartet
Sólrún, María, Edda and Hildur - the four Icelandic women in their mid twenties collectively known as amiina first decided they wanted to write music together in 2004. They gathered together every last instrument they could find and piled them into their car. They then filled every available bit of space with food.
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múm - Sing along no matter what
múm are back! Two years after the release of their last album Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy, the band's fifth album proper, 'Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know' is set for release in August on Morr Music. Recorded in countless different places in four different countries, although most of it was done in Múm's native Iceland. In Estonia they borrowed a beautiful old house in Leigo, a place with hundreds of lakes, where they wrote new songs and recorded with the Estonian Suisapäisa Mixed choir.
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For a Minor Reflection - For a Major Interview
Hailing from Iceland FaMR comprises of four 19-year-olds from Reykjavík, Iceland - Kjartan Hólm (guitar), Guðfinnur Sveinsson (guitar and piano), Elvar Jón Guðmundsson (bass) and Jóhannes Ólafsson (percussion). Their music is best described as energetic, melodious post-rock, though they expand and even subvert their style with almost every song.
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Hallfríður Ólafsdóttir - Maximus Musicus Roars On
Hallfríður Ólafsdóttir is the author of the best-selling children’s book, Maximus Musicus, the tale of a mouse that visits an orchestra. Ms. Ólafsdóttir, a flute player with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, wrote the book in 2008, with illustrations from ISO violist Þórarinn Már Baldursson, and a symphonic concert of the book was made last year featuring famous compositions from Ravel, Copland and Beethoven, amongst others.
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GusGus Exclusive!
Icelandic electronic pioneers GusGus whose name is taken from the 1974 German film Ali: Fear Eats the Soul by Rainer Werner Fassbinder - were formed in 1995, during a break in the making of the shortcut "Pleasure". Initially they were a multimedia collective that combined sexually -charged dance music with visual arts and short films made by the group's members.
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Stórsveit Nix Noltes - Royal Family
Founded in the autumn of 2004 by nine musicians living in Reykjavik, Iceland, Stórsveit Nix Noltes are a hugely talented and creative collective united through a mutual fascination for folk music from Bulgaria and the Balkan areas. Comprising of members of múm, Benni Hemm Hemm, Lost in Hildurness, Númer Núll, Rúnk, Kanada, Hestbak, and Kría Brekkan, among others, the group initially took shape at a class led by guitarist Hilmar Jensson at the Iceland Academy of the Arts.
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Kira Kira - Good Times Abound
A founding member of the Icelandic music and art collective Kitchen Motors, for the past 10 years Kira Kira (Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir) has tinkered with noises in bands such as Spúnk, Big band brútal and Stórsveit Sigríðar Níelsdóttur She has been known as Kira Kira since autumn 1999, when she had a funny nightmare in Tokyo, and has since composed music for theatre, dance and movies and performed \ exhibited extensively in her home country.
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Hjaltalín - Going Up?
Hjaltalín is a nine-piece rock band that perform their music with a wide selection of instruments, from bassoon to regular bass. With so many members it's difficult to know whether to call them a small orchestra, a mutated and overgrown rock band or something else entirely.
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Sirrý Ella - On Wings Of Song
Sirrý Ella (Sigríður Ella Magnúsdóttir) first appeared in England as a prize-winner in the Gold award singing competition for concert singers at the Aldeburgh Festival, having already won prizes in Toulouse and at the Flanders Festival. She commenced her musical studies in violin, voice and composition in her native Iceland and went on to study at the University of Music in Vienna,where she qualified as a singing teacher and went on to study opera, lieder and oratorio.
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HIldur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir - Back From Hildurness
This month sees veteran UK experimental label Touch release cellist/composer Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir’s second solo album, “Without Sinking”. Best known for her collaborations with múm and guest appearances with Pan Sonic, Guðnadóttir has a rich catalogue of collaborations and varied projects behind her.
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Sin Fang Bous - Bousing It Up
Sin Fang Bous a.k.a. Sindri Mar Sigfusson, is traditionally known as the founder/frontman of Icelandic sensations Seabear. Though Seabear began as Sindri’s one-man project - he self-released the debut “Singing Arc” (2004) on his own – the project has gradually grown to encompass anything up to seven members.
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Kjartan Ólafsson - Dark Music Man
Kjartan Ólafsson currently works as a composer, teacher, producer of contemporary music festivals in Iceland ErkiTíð and Dark Music Days, and as a researcher and developer of CALMUS. He graduated in 1984 from the Reykjavík College of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition. He continued his studies in Utrecht in Holland, at the Institute of Sonology, where he concentrated on electronic music, and later at the Sibelius Academy in Finland where his composition teachers were Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen. Kjartan earned his Licentiate of Music diploma (PhD) from the Sibelius Academy in 1995.
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Dust - Dust Storm
Reykjavík-based rock troupe Dust might be familiar to fans of Icelandic rock. The first incarnation of the band, formed by lead singer Dave Dunn, managed to tour America, played SXSW in Austin, and release their self-titled debut in the States (2002).
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Skakkamanage - All Over Their Faces
Skakkamanage was formed in the year 2003, by newlyweds Svavar and Berglind and their friend Tony. They aroused curiosity as well as splendid reviews with their debut album, 2006’s “Lab of Love,” a project that began as a bedroom project but soon transformed into a mad circus that took all the main music venues in Iceland by storm.
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Árni Heimir Ingólfsson - Melody, Myth & Musicology
Pianist, Conductor, Musicologist, Author, Journalist and ISO Program Director are just some of Árni Heimir Ingólfsson’s working titles. One of the most active and erudite men working in Icelandic music today, Árni holds BM-degrees in piano performance and music history from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and master’s and PhD degrees in Musicology from Harvard University.
He has appeared in numerous concerts in Europe and the United States as a pianist, accompanist and choral conductor, and has lectured and published widely on Icelandic music, especially the music of Icelandic composer Jón Leifs (his biography of Leifs is scheduled for publication in 2009).
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Dr. Spock - A Doctor a Day
Dr. Spock were formed in the final years before the millennium by a group of artists who met randomly to discharge the energy flowing between them. Despite their electrifying blend of rock and roll and unbelievably cathartic live shows – which feature marigolds and balaclavas in abundance - many believed the band would eventually fade into obscurity.
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Hugi Guðmundsson - Old and New
Hugi Guðmundsson’s latest work, Apocrypha, was written between 2005 and 2007, enjoyed a world premiere in summer 2007 (in Holland) and was eventually recorded in the peaceful settings of Skálholt, Iceland. The album has won contemporary classical composer Hugi a plethora of accolades and awards this year, including a 2008 Iceland Music Award, a prestigious DV (Icelandic newspaper) Cultural Award (for achievements in the field of music) and, most recently, a Kraumur Fund Prize (one of only six awarded).
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FM Belfast - Pumpin Up The Jams
FM Belfast have become the darlings of the Reykjavik scene in a very short time indeed, chiefly thanks to their track “Lotus” – a catchy disco-electro cover of Rage Against the Machine's “Killing in the Name of”. The tune recently became an anthem in the Icelandic capital, and propelled the band to the forefront of the scene.
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Reykjavík! - Blood Brothers
Having already caused an almighty splash with their 2006 Valgeir Sigurðsson (Björk, Bonnie Prince Billy) produced début, “Glacial Landscapes, Religion, Oppression and Alcohol”, six-piece cacophonists Reykjavík! need no introduction to most Icelandic music fans.
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Jóhann Jóhannsson: Theory of Machines
Avant Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson has been quietly bewitching listeners for years with his stately, slow-building and hauntingly melodic music. His first two solo records - Englabörn (2002) and Virðulegu Forsetar (2004) – were released by the singular British independent Touch label. Despite limited promotional resources, both found plenty of receptive ears, receiving glowing reviews in music media around the world. Indeed, Virðulegu Forsetar found its way onto many critics' end-of-year lists.+ read more ι tell a friend
YOU ARE IN CONTROL! Roundup
IMX's very own Paul Sullivan went the rounds at You are in Control. In this special edition of In the Spotlight, you may read all about it…and so to Reykjavik’s intriguingly retro-modern Hotel Saga, where IMX’s first major conference, You Are In Control, is about to begin. The setting: an unusual yet strangely dapper conference room fitted with the kind of curvaceous ceiling lighting and mirrored pillars that wouldn’t look out of place at a New York discotech, circa 1979. Ben Frost and Valgeir Sigurdsson welcome the guests with some electronic goodness. The krona might be down but spirits are definitely up.
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Lay Low: Icelandic Country Girl
Lay Low’s – a.k.a. Lovísa Elísabet’s - rapid rise to stardom in Iceland has a touch of fairytale magic to it. After quietly uploading a few songs onto MySpace, within a very short time things started to take off. Longtime friend and musician Magnús Öder co-produced her debut album Please Don’t Hate Me, mixing the final sounds of keyboards, slide-guitar and banjo among others, and playing many of the instruments himself. Her other longtime friends Bassi and Sibbi played drums and banjo on the album and all of them joined her live.
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Kalli - They Call Him Kalli
Kalli – a.k.a. Icelandic singer-songwriter Karl Henry – used to be the frontman of Without Gravity, the band behind the critically received Tenderfoot album. When WG disbanded, Kalli picked up his guitar and recorded ten new songs for his debut solo album: While the City Sleeps.
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Ólöf Arnalds - Seeking The Impossible
Born in Reykjavík in 1980, Ólöf Arnalds began her musical education with the violin in 1986, followed by classical voice training in her teens. A self trained guitarist and master of a variety of instruments, Ólöf has been a prominent figure in the Icelandic music scene for a number of years.
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Mammút - A Mammoth Task
Mammút are: Katrína Mogensen (vocals/keyboard/trumpet); Vilborg Ása Dýradottir (bass guitar); Alexandra Baldursdottir (guitar), Arnar Pétursson (guitar), Andri Bjartur Jakobsson (drums/percussion). Hailing from Reykjavik, Iceland, this three girl/two boy team - aged between 18 and 20 – formed in 2004. Three months later they won the annual battle of the bands (Músiktilraunir) competition - the springboard for some of the most promising bands and artists in Iceland.
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Emiliana Torrini: Armini & Me
Emiliana Torrini grew up in Kópavogur, Iceland. At the age of seven she joined a choir as a soprano, then went to opera school at 15. In 1994, she became well known in Iceland after winning the song competition of junior colleges in Iceland. Since those heady, youthful days of schools, awards and Gloria Gaynor covers, Emiliana has gone on to international fame, initially as a member of Icelandic artist group GusGus (contributing chiefly to their debut Polydistortion in 1997), and then as a solo artist in her own right.She has released three albums in Iceland and three more solo records internationally, namely 1999’s Love In The Time Of Science (produced by Roland Orzabal of Tears For fears fame), 2005’s Fisherman’s Woman (for Rough Trade) and her latest venture, Me And Armini, to be released via Rough Trade on 8th September, a project that sees her working again with long-time collaborator
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Blindfold - Nothing To See Here
Blindfold are four Icelandic musicians based in North London. Their songs are created using a vast template of textures carefully crafted on guitars (Svenni), bass (Teitur) and drums (Friðrik), with ethereal vocals coming courtesy of frontman and composer Biggi Hilmarsson. The band’s debut album - “Blindfold” - was received positively, and the band have been playing a host of shows in the UK at venues such as The Roundhouse and 93 Feet East, building up a solid fan base along the way.
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Sign Of The Times
Sign have been ripping up concert halls and blowing speakers with their sophisticated power rock ethic for almost seven years now. Comprised of Zolberg (voice, guitar), Eagle (drums), Heimir (bass), Aggi (keyboard, guitar) and A.D. (guitar), the band’s brand of heavy duty rock, pounding rhythms and Zolberg’s awesome vocals have earned them accolades from critics and punters all over Europe.
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Cortes - When I Say I Love You
After a phenomenally successful year in the UK with a No. 1 selling album, sell out tours and a Classical Brit Award nomination, the Icelandic Classical singing sensation Cortes is set to release his second album ‘When You Say You Love Me’ in June 2008.
Cortes’ No 1 selling self-titled debut album was released last year and stayed at the top spot for three weeks. The album received widespread acclaim, including a nomination for the prestigious Album of The Year Award at this year’s Classical Brit Awards. Previous winners of the award include the legendary Sir Paul McCartney, Andrea Bocelli and Katherine Jenkins.
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In The Spotlight - Bang Gang Tackle Their Ghost
Barði Jóhannsson has been performing under the name Bang Gang since 1996. His first outing was the atmospheric You (2000), which was followed by two simultaneous albums in 2003: Something Wrong, and Lady & Bird, a side-project involving Jóhannsson and French songwriter Keren Ann.
Since then Barði has toured, co-directed a short film (Red Death, screened at the Pompidou Centre in 2004), produced and wrote lyrics for several Icelandic artists, and composed a soundtrack (Haxan, 2005). Now he returns to the songwriting foray with the third Bang Gang outing, Ghost From The Past, which ranges from bittersweet melancholy pop to opera-infused melodic rock.
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Sesar A - Return Of The Icelandic Grandfather of Rap
Dubbed the "grandfather of Icelandic rap", Sesar A – Eyjólfur B. Eyvindarson – is one of the most important figures in Icelandic hip hop. With more than two decades of work within all fields of hip hop culture he has released seminal albums such as 2001’s "The Storm in the wake of the Calm" (the first rap record entirely in Icelandic) and “Do ItYourself”, plus the first ever rap compilation entirely in Icelandic, 2002’s "Rímnamín".
A few years ago the rapper and beatmaker went to live in Spain, where he teamed up with the IFS crew, an international ‘supergroup’ that boasts nine members from eight different countries, and who rap and sing in up to 10 different languages. Their first EP "Worldwide" was released in spring 2007, and some of them feature on Sesar’s confident, beat-heavy third album, “Too Good”, released this month…
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Valgeir Sigurðsson - A Word from the Greenhouse
Producer, mixer, composer, engineer, programmer and musician Valgeir Sigurðsson has been a part of the music scene for over a decade, working his studio magic on innovative homegrown artists like Björk and Múm and international luminaries such as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Howie B. He set up his Greenhouse Studios in 1997, which continue to go from strength to strength, and in 2005 started his Bedroom Community label, putting out music by himself and composers such as Nico Muhly and Ben Frost...
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Soundspell - Iceland's Youngest Pop Sensations
With ages ranging from 17 to 18, Soundspell are one of Iceland’s youngest new pop sensations. Coming with a matured sound that blends the pop sensibilities of bands like Coldplay and Muse as well as more experimental bands like Radiohead and Sigur Rós, their music is at once adventurous yet melodic - global yet uniquely Icelandic.
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Helgi Jónsson - Instant Photos
Not to be confused with the Icelandic botanist and algologist of the same name, Helgi Jónsson is a lean, mean contemporary songwriting machine. A highly trained trombone-player, he has toured and recorded all over Europe and the U.S. with a vast array of bands and artists from Voices of Europe to Sigur Rós , but mostly with his own group Beefólk, signed to Wolfgang Muthspiel’s material-records label. His debut album 'Glóandi', released in September 2005 (on material-records) united...
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Mugison - Swinging the Blues Away
Sonic adventurer and musical multi-tasker Mugison kicked off his recording career in fine style with his 2003 album, “Lonely Mountain,” released on Matthew Herbert’s Lifelike label. A wayward amalgam of laptop experimentation and raw songwriting, the album established Mugi as a serious force within the Icelandic music scene. The even more crafted and compelling “Mugimama, is this Monkey Music?” (released in 2005 on Accidental), cemented his rep as a...
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Mínus - Northern Killers
Icelandic renegades Minus have been hailed as “the saviors of metal” and “the first great rock & roll gang of the 21st century” (Kerrang!). They’ve shared stages with everyone from Muse and Metallica to the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, and have raised hell with a stealthy selection of ‘fuck-you-core’ albums like “Hey Johnny” (1999) “Jesus Christ Bobby,” (2001) plus 2003’s slightly less bombastic yet...
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Pétur Ben - Him and the Lord
Born in Reykjavik in 1976, Pétur Ben has been playing and writing music since his teens. Although active in the Icelandic underground scene for years, Pétur first became known for playing with Mugison, arranging and writing for Mugison's 2004 album "Mugimama is this Monkeymusic?" Pétur graduated from the composition department at the Reykjavík Academy of Music in 2004, where he studied with Úlfar Ingi Haraldsson and Hróðmar Ingi Sigurbjörnsson. His composition degree came in...
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FM Belfast - Once More With Feeling
FM Belfast have become the darlings of the Reykjavik scene in a very short time indeed, chiefly thanks to their track “Lotus” – a catchy disco-electro cover of Rage Against the Machine's “Killing in the Name of”. The tune recently became an anthem in the Icelandic capital, and propelled the band to the forefront of the scene. The band formed in late 2005 as a duo (Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson (Plúseinn) and Lóa Hlín Hjálmtysdóttir) and remained a studio project for a...
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Nína Margrét Grímsdóttir
Atli Heimir Sveinsson is a colossus of the Icelandic classical world. Born into a musical family in 1938, Atli’s career began at his childhood home in Reykjavík. Piano lessons were started at the tender age of 10, before going on to study piano with Rögnvaldur Sigurjónsson at the Reykjavik College Of Music, then at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany. In 1963 he attended a series of summer courses in Darmstadt, where he met some of Europe’s musical...
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Photo by: Hordur Sveinsson Bloodgroup are an electronic-rock band hailing from the tiny town of Egilsstaðir, on the Icelandic East Coast. Having started out as a largely local concern, the crew – which consists of siblings Hallur, Raggi, Lilja plus Faroese musician Janus and occasionally DJ B-Ruff – have been gaining international notoriety of late with their pop savvy, rock-influenced electronic grooves...
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In the spotlight
Though only 20 years old, Ólafur Arnalds has packed a lot of musical experience into his young life. Hailing from the suburban Icelandic town of Mosfellsbær (a few kilometres outside Reykjavík), Arnalds has been attending music school since he was 5 years old. Not only is Arnalds competent on a dizzying array of instruments, he’s also unafraid to mix elegiac, classical arrangements with balls-out rock & roll, as shown on his extraordinary debut album, Eulogy for...
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In the spotlight
Sign have been ripping up concert halls and blowing speakers with their sophisticated power rock ethic for almost seven years now. Comprised of Zolberg (voice, guitar), Eagle (drums), Heimir (bass) and A.D. (guitar), the band’s brand of heavy-duty rock, pounding rhythms and Zolberg’s awesome vocals have earned them accolades from critics and punters all over Europe. After forming in early 2001 to compete in Iceland’s Battle of the Bands (they finished second and Zolberg was...
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In the spotlight
múm are one of Iceland’s most successful (and magical) musical exports. This month sees the release of their 4th album, go go smear the poison ivy [Fat Cat, UK]. Coming three years after the release of their acclaimed third album summer make good' it’s the cause of much excitement for the band’s ever-growing global fan base. A colourful, twitching and playful work of art, full of life affirming energy, the album has been preceded by the mysterious single 'they made frogs...
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In the spotlight
Sigurdur Flosason, one of Iceland’s most prominent musicians, has been active on the Icelandic jazz scene for over 25 years. Though jazz is his main musical focus, Sigurdur’s activities have also touched upon many other kinds of music. Since 1989 he has been head of the jazz department at Tónlistarksóli F.I.H (Iceland’s only jazz school) and has given numerous courses, clinics and workshops in Iceland and abroad, as well as working extensively for the Icelandic Ministry Of...
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In the spotlight
GARDAR CORTES Q: Gardar, you come from a very musical family. Can you tell us how it was to grow up in such an environment? For example, what can you remember of your very first musical or singing experiences? A: It was such a privilege to grow up with so much music around and without a doubt that has had a huge influence on me. Mum would practice up to 8 hours a day on the piano and dad would be rehearsing all the time too. And of course all their albums that echoed through the house I still...
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