Iceland Smash It @ by:Larm

Last month’s by:Larm event in Norway proved fertile ground for Icelandic artists, with Hjaltalín, Ólafur Arnalds and Retro Stefson all receiving blistering reviews. Hjaltalín managed to get the highest rating from Norwegian radio station (the only act to score a full six), and were bigged up in Paste Magazine, SoundVenue, Danish newspaper Gaffa and Billboard (who name-checked them alongside Harry's Gym, Casiokids and the Whitest Boy Alive as highlights), and they also performed live on TV2, which you can see here.

Retro Stefson found themselves compared to an “Icelandic teenage Vampire Weekend” as well as an “Iceland's teenage Bee-Gees”…by the same reviewer! Spillball.com enthused: “This year’s favourite is…Retro Stefson, a weird mix of pop, disco, ska and more…the band’s front, who like the others in the band barely could have been old enough to be there, had a totally mental body language…go see them if you can. Please!”
 
Ólafur Arnalds garnered a great two-page review in the By:Larm news with the headline: "the most unexpected but undeniably [the most] beautiful performance by:Larm will see this year" and earned himself a formidable 5/6 from NRK.
 
“The festival was a great success,” commented Hjaltalín manager Steinþór Helgi Arnsteinsson. “Not only did Hjaltalín have a great time in Oslo and were really pleased to get the chance to visit Norway we've been getting a lot of requests after their shows. by:Larm is a fantastic festival and we're really looking forward visiting Norway again. It seems like the summer will be really busy.”