Iceland
Sigur Rós lose core member before album release and world tourTuesday, 22 May 2012Sigur Rós, whose new album Valtari is issued on 28 May, have announced the departure of core member Kjartan Sveinsson (keyboards/piano), who had been with the band since 1998. This also comes before the start of their world tour, which commences on... Read more... |
CD: Sigur Rós - ValtariMonday, 21 May 2012
The use of Sigur Rós’s aural drama for the soundtracks of Life on Earth, Vanilla Sky and its subsequent sound bed ubiquity has meant their music has become divorced from who they are. The enthralling Valtari emphasises that these four Icelanders are... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Ilan VolkovSaturday, 28 April 2012
Relentlessly energetic, opinionated, and never less than passionate about music-making, Ilan Volkov is a close as you get to a prodigy in the world of conducting. Appointed as Young Conductor in association with the Northern Sinfonia at just 19, at... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Reykjavik: A New Musical Landscape for IcelandSunday, 18 March 2012
It’s 11pm on a Thursday night. The kind of weather that makes balloon animals of umbrellas, that raises a tsunami in a bird-bath, is raging outside. Inside the Harpa concert hall some 300 people are gathered in attentive silence while five musicians... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Oslo: by:Larm Festival 2012 and the Nordic Music PrizeWednesday, 22 February 2012
Although the four days of Norway’s 15th by:Larm Festival were dominated by the presentation of the second annual Nordic Music Prize, there were plenty of other distractions: a sobering tour of Norwegian black metal’s infamous sites, a talk by... Read more... |
2011: Tintin, Tallinn and a Year of SurprisesTuesday, 27 December 2011
The surprises linger longest. The things you’re not prepared for, the things of which you’ve got little foreknowledge. Lykke Li’s Wounded Rhymes was amazing, and she was equally astonishing live, too. Fleet Foxes's Helplessness Blues was more than a... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Reykjavík: Iceland Airwaves 2011Sunday, 23 October 2011
Iceland is remote. Strategic too. Vikings stopped off there on the way to North America. It hosted the Reagan-Gorbachev summit 25 years ago. On the anniversary, visitors from America, Canada and across continental Europe are in Reykjavík for the... Read more... |
CD: Björk - BiophiliaThursday, 13 October 2011
An album that encompasses pan-global collaborations, iPad/Phone apps, internet jiggery-pokery, art installations, live multimedia shows and even a tuning system, with the “Ultimate Edition” of the album coming complete with a set of tuning forks to... Read more... |
Björk, Harpa, ReykjavíkThursday, 13 October 2011
Björk’s Biophilia is a five-headed organism: the album (itself issued in five different editions), the app, the documentary, the live show and the website. Here in Harpa, Reykjavík’s spanking-new concert hall, Björk is in her home town, delivering... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Reykjavík: Fanfare for the Harpa Concert HallSunday, 28 August 2011
After three days' motoring and clambering around the most awesome natural landscapes I've ever seen, how could a mere concert hall in a city the size of Cambridge begin to compare? Well, it helped that the façades in which that great visionary... Read more... |
Ólafur Arnalds, Queen Elizabeth HallTuesday, 19 July 2011
Ólafur Arnalds used to drum for a hardcore band called Fighting Shit. But since 2007 he’s produced a string of achingly emotive CDs that integrate sparse piano, keening strings and subtle electronic texture. He’s Icelandic and, inevitably, his... Read more... |
Beginner's Guide to the music of Scandinavia: not what it says it isSaturday, 09 July 2011
Certain Nordic countries are identified with particular forms of music. Norway and Finland are the home to various strands of metal. Sweden’s pop songwriters and producers are world-renowned, attracting the likes of Britney Spears to Scandinavia.... Read more... |
