Keeping a finger on the pulse

Issue #1 - page 2

On Abbey Road With Biggi Hilmars

in Explore/Issue #1 by

Words by Wim Van Hooste Photo by María Kjartans (www.mariakjartans.com) Reykjavík On Stage had the opportunity to have a chat with multitalented musician Biggi Hilmars. He is well known for his previous work with Ampop and Blindfold. Hello Biggi Hilmars! You recently recorded in the Abbey Road Studios with the London Chamber Orchestra in 2016. That must have been a fantastic experience. Funnily when I first came into the hall in Studio 2 it didn’t look like much. It felt like an old gymnasium at elementary school. But when the orchestra began to play the music and we heard the music, I got silly amounts of goose bumps, which made me realize the privilege I was experiencing. Not to mention working in such high-quality conditions at Abbey Road Studios with world class musicians was invaluable. (more…)

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

Q&A w/Snorri Helgason

in Explore/Issue #1 by

Words by Bartek Wilk Snorri Helgason – singer-songwriter, former member of Sprengjuhöllin, promoter, manager You are a very experienced musician. At 19 years of age, you quit your job and completely focused on music. Looking back to these times, when you released your first album with Sprengjuhöllin, what – as a beginner artist – did you dream of? What were your expectations of the music market? Well it’s been 10 years since I made that first album with Sprengjuhöllin. A lot has happened since then. A lot of things have changed in the music business and in the world in general. We didn’t have Spotify, and Youtube was just starting to grow. People were still buying CDs and downloads to load onto their ipods. Artistically I don’t know what I expected from that first album but it was a surprise hit in my home country. We sold something like 10.000…

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

Bergur Thomas Anderson: My 10 Most Influential Icelandic Albums Of All Time

in Explore/Issue #1 by

Words by Stína Satanía Bergur Thomas Anderson is a very active member of the Icelandic music scene, who over the years played bass in no fewer than 3 well-known bands: Sudden Weather Change (rock), Oyama (shoegaze) and Grísalappalísa (post-punk). He currently resides in Amsterdam, where he is following the Master Artistic Research program at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, while at the same time honing his skills as a musician and visual artist. Exclusively for readers of Reykjavík On Stage, Bergur consented to reveal the 10 Icelandic albums of all time that shaped him as a musician. (more…)

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

The Franz Connection

in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by

Words by Wim Van Hooste The review was originally printed in Reykjavík On Stage (Issue 1) Franz Gunnarsson has a long history in the Icelandic music scene. He played and plays guitar in bands as different as In Memoriam, Quicksand Jesus, Moody Company, Ensími and Dr. Spock. Kaflaskil (Watershed) is his first side/solo project, made with the helping hands and vocal chords of male/female friends, like Kristófer Jensson, Tinna Marína Jónsdóttir, Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson (Todmobile since 2011), Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir , Stéfan Jakobsson, Bryndís Ásmundur, Magni Ásgeirsson (Á Móti Sól), and Dr. Spock buddy Guðfinnur Karlsson. The 12-track album opens with a tune that throws you back to the Icelandic sound of the 90s: ‘Einn Dag Í Einu’ (‘One Day At The Time’). ‘Afkvæmi’ (‘Offspring’) has a fantastic drive and vibe, pretty fly for a white guy, indeed. The first duet and duel, a clash of the sexes, is ‘Hugarhvarf’…

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

One SS Pylsur With Nothing For The Road To Nowhere

in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by

Words by Wim Van Hooste The review was originally printed in Reykjavík On Stage (Issue 1) The ninth studio album since 2000 by the neo-psychedelic rock band Singapore Sling is a colourful cocktail of Henrik Björnsson’s typical atonal voice, dirty reverb-driven bass lines, a wall of feedback powered guitars and menacing drums. Business as usual? A new ingredient perhaps? (more…)

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

Lost And Found In The Wormhole

in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by

Words by Wim Van Hooste The review was originally printed in Reykjavík On Stage (Issue 1) If you think about the Icelandic trip-hop scene, Worm Is Green is a name that comes immediately to mind. Hailing from Akranes and formed in 2002, Worm Is Green is still around in the ground. The band was responsible for Automagic (Thule, 2003), Push Play (Mikrolux, 2007), Glow (Kilk Records, 2012), To them we are only shadows (ata:digital, 2014), Loops, Cuts and Lost Clues Vol. 1 (ata:empire, 2016), and numerous EPs and singles in the past. Who needs a trip to Bristol, if you can drive to Akranes through the tunnel made by Worm Is Green?! Loop, Cuts and Lost Clues Vol. 2: One could say ‘more the best of the rest’. DVD lovers would call it “The Extras”. Anyhow, Worm Is Green offers a look inside the kitchen of quartet Árni, Bjarni, Steini…

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

East End Grrrls

in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by

Words by Wim Van Hooste The review was originally printed in Reykjavík On Stage (Issue 4) One thing is clear about East Of My Youth: they have an impeccable literary taste. Their name comes from Jack Kerouac’s novel On The Road: I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future. The lyrics of ‘Lemonstars’ (a song unfortunately not featured on this début EP), were also inspired by a novel, Worldlight, by Halldór Laxness, Iceland’s Nobel Prize author. East of My Youth is a ladies’ duo consisting of lifelong friends Thelma Marín Jónsdóttir and Herdís Stefánsdóttir. Finding themselves in Berlin after both finishing the Icelandic Academy of Arts (IAA), the grrrls decided to make music together, for our great pleasure. Their eponymous EP features six electropop songs, mostly built on luscious lyrics driven by Thelma’s angelic vocals. The opening…

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

JFDR – Brazil

in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by

Words by Bartek Wilk The review was originally printed in Reykjavík On Stage (Issue 4) I don’t know any other Icelandic artist who has been involved in so many different projects in the span of a year. Let’s see – first of all there was a new Samaris album. Although musically different from their previous releases and overtaken by Doddi, Black Lights couldn’t have been done without her lyrics and her very special voice (a voice that won her the 2016 Icelandic Music Award for best electronic album and best female singer). The trio is still one of the most important electronic bands of the younger generation of Icelandic music. There was also Sundur – a new Pascal Pinon album Jófríður recorded with her sister Ásthildur. This one was really digging to the roots of the Ákadóttir sisters’ music. So simple and honest in the folk-influenced singer-songwriter form, but deep…

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

Wanna get tickets? Set up a band!

in Explore/Issue #1 by

Words by Bartek Wilk Photo by Magnús Andersen (www.magnusandersen.co.uk) It was 2006. Finnish band Lordi won the 51st Eurovision contest in Athens with their song ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’. A few months later, 15-year-old Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson heard about a music competition that would take place in his school. The main prize for the winning band was a free invitation to the Musiktilraunir festival. Uni couldn’t give up such opportunity. The only chance to get the tickets was to participate in the competition as a band. So, with a little help of his school teachers – Árni from FM Belfast and Bóas, singer of Reykjavík! he made a quick decision to set up the band. Unnsteinn gathered his friends from junior high school: Þórður Jörundsson, Jon Seljeseth, Þorbjörg Gunnarsdóttir, Haraldur Stefánsson and Gylfi Sigurðsson and together with his younger brother Logi Pedro they wrote a song. Although ‘Papa Paolo’ didn’t manage…

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

The many sonic faces of Ragnar Ólafsson

in Explore/Issue #1 by

Words by Stína Satanía I’m always amazed by the ease with which Icelandic musicians can deliver their creativity by several channels at the same time. Often those channels are not even genre-related. When I first met Ragnar Ólafsson during his tour with Árstíðir in 2012 I asked how he managed to find time to work on three different bands simultaneously. He replied humbly: I just don’t watch TV. Five years later, Ragnar is taking his first steps into a solo career and is working on another three albums and a movie soundtrack. Although his adventure in Iceland started in the metal scene, his most famous project so far is an indie-folk band, Árstíðir. They are currently recording their 4th album and have already performed in over 30 countries, conquered the hearts of the Russian audience and supported Pain Of Salvation on their European tour in 2013. Moreover, Árstíðir is the…

Keep Reading

You might be interested in

Rokkað á Hvanneyri

(Pistillinn var skrifaður fyrir Tengivagninn á Rás1 og birtist þar, miðvikudaginn 14. ágúst 2019.) Falið í Borgarbyggð með tæplega 300

1 2
Go to Top