Reykjavík On Stage

Q&A w/Snorri Helgason

Published on 09/12/2018 in Explore/Issue #1 by Stína Satanía

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…

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

Published on 08/12/2018 in Explore/Issue #1 by Stína Satanía

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…)

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The Franz Connection

Published on 08/12/2018 in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by Stína Satanía

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’…

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One SS Pylsur With Nothing For The Road To Nowhere

Published on 05/12/2018 in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by Stína Satanía

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…)

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Lost And Found In The Wormhole

Published on 05/12/2018 in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by Stína Satanía

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…

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East End Grrrls

Published on 05/12/2018 in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by Stína Satanía

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…

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JFDR – Brazil

Published on 05/12/2018 in Explore/Issue #1/REVIEWS by Stína Satanía

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…

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Sigur Rós Norður

Published on 24/03/2018 in Explore/Issue #2 by Rvk On Stage

by Bartek Wilk Every musical fascination, like a distant journey, starts with a small step – an impulse that opens your eyes. You probably have your own story about such a musical journey. This is mine. It was 2 AM. The local radio station was about to finish its musical broadcast. The last song started. I heard sounds. I heard words, but I didn’t understand them; I didn’t even know what language I was hearing. I grabbed a pen and wrote down – not without errors – Svefn-g-englar. In the Internet search engine, I typed ‘Sigur Rós’ (this was years ago, so it was going through the telephone modem). Luckily, they shared music on their website. I was thrilled. I just had to share my discovery with my music authority, my elder brother. What I had unearthed was nothing new to him; he gave me a CD comprising songs without…

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Get ready for Mammút’s tornado

Published on 23/03/2018 in Explore/Issue #2 by Rvk On Stage

Words by Stína Satanía The lights in the huge concert hall turned off. Five people dressed in black began their last show of the week at Iceland’s biggest music festival. The band on stage, Mammút, has been known on the local scene for their dark, melodic, post-punk style for over a decade. On that last night of Iceland Airwaves 2016, Mammút had the privilege of warming up for one of the biggest acts of the festival, PJ Harvey, and they presented brand new material from their upcoming (at the time) fourth album, Kinder Versions. The very first sounds I heard on the stage suggested that the new album was going to be something special. Some months later, I had the honour of speaking with guitarist Alexandra Baldursdóttir and frontwoman Katrína Mogensen about the new album. (more…)

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Wanna get tickets? Set up a band!

Published on 23/03/2018 in Explore/Issue #1 by Rvk On Stage

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…

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Keeping a finger on the pulse