Tonik Ensemble is the musical output of Icelander Anton Kaldal Ágústsson. Exploring the vast expanse of the electronic spectrum the soundscape is a mix of electronics and the more organic live instruments. It is a strong signature sound of contrasts: rich and stripped bare, minimalist but intricate, finely crafted and yet very instinctive. Together with an ever-evolving cast of talented collaborators, the output is a deep, atmospheric yet soulful pseudo-techno.
Vio are the winners of the 2014 Icelandic Music Experiments (Músíktilraunir), with their singer also receiving the award for best singer. Formed only three weeks before the contest, they started out as a semi-acoustic trio but soon evolved into a four piece alternative band with a broader soundscape.
The Missionaries are the public’s rock band, friends of the “under-dog” and harbingers of truth. As a band, The Missionaries were never formed. Instead, they received a calling from higher powers. Thus, being a member of The Missionaries is not a choice. The Missionaries’ work is not about religion as it’s commonly understood. Their missionary act is about fighting stagnation, common boredom and midlife crisis in its various forms, such as falling victim to golf, joining the Oddfellows or the Freemasonry.
He has the beard of a freedom fighter and the battlefield is our hearts. Even since long before his debut album Celebrating Life was released in 2008, Borko has been one of the most influential stalwarts in Reykjavík’s boiling music scene.
Arnljótur is a musician born and raised in Reykjavík. Since a child, he has studied music and art as well as being quite fascinated by chess and science.In between playing with his reggae band, Ojba Rasta, he does projects with various people linked to improvisation and innovation as well as doing sessions for all kinds of bands, ranging from big band afro funk through pop music to experimental stuff, collaborating with various artists (Sin Fang, Úlfur Hansson, Oren Ambarchi, Retro Stefson). He has released the albums Listauki (2008), Línur (2014) and Til einskis (2015) and has almost three new albums ready. When working solo, Arnljótur makes electronic music. Also an experienced flautist, the flute often finds it´s way into the music. At this event, Arnljótur will play new pulsating electronic music mixed with a dash of his older material.
In the nineties, the band Surefni started as a four member garage rock band with a computer playing experimental rock n´ roll. Soon the band made some changes and ended up with a whole lot of analogue synthesizers and 2 members. The band has released three albums and a number of tracks that came out on compilation albums in Iceland which include a couple of hits that stayed for weeks on music charts. Surefni where a very active live playing techno band in the nineties but around 2001 the band split after about 6 years together. In 2011 Surefni briefly rejoined to play an “in memoriam” concert and the band did a show at Sonar Reykjavik 2015.
Emilie & Ogden is not your typical duet but rather an encounter between a young singer and a harp. Her particular voice has often been described as pure and soft, resonating in perfect harmony with the instrument. On stage, her traditional folk sound is embellished by drums, bass and a soft electronic touch, drawing inspiration from other female artists such as Feist and St-Vincent.
Úlfur Úlfur is an Icelandic rap duo that’s on the rise. They’ll be playing a few times during Airwaves, both on and off-venue, so check ‘em out!
Father John Misty aka Josh Tillman, says of the album, “I Love You, Honeybear” was recorded all through 2013 to 2014 in Los Angeles with producer Jonathan Wilson, who I also recorded and produced 2012’s Fairly Fun with. There’s a case to be made that it sounds and acts a bit like solo-era John Lennon, Scott Walker, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, and Dory Previn, while taking more than a few cues from Woody Allen, Kurt Vonnegut, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Muhammad Ali. Blammo. It has a decidedly more soulful presence than Fear Fun, due in no small part to the fact that I am truly singing my ass off all over this motherfucker. The album is really characterized by the scope and ambition of the arrangements. Nearly every tune is augmented by something special, be it orchestral strings, a mariachi band, questionable electronic drum solos, ragtime jazz combos, soul singers, or what have you. I’m pretty sure there’s a sitar in there somewhere. Blammo.
The Pop Group formed in Bristol in 1977 out of a sense of disenchantment with the increasing conservatism of punk. Drawing on an eclectic range of influences from free jazz, conscious funk, heavyweight dub to avant-garde experimentalism, alongside contemporaries like Public Image Limited, This Heat and Throbbing Gristle, they were at the forefront of a musical period marked out by its ground-breaking innovation.Socially conscious, their politically-charged lyrics boasted intellectual influences including Wilhelm Reich, situationism, French romanticism and the beat poets. Early gigs supporting kindred spirits Pere Ubu and Patti Smith led very quickly to headlining events such as the 1978 Electric Ballroom line-up of Nico, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Cabaret Voltaire. By 1979, with the advent of Thatcher and the threat of nuclear world war, the band succumbed to the paranoia of the day and fought back with the classic single We Are All Prostitutes, followed by the LP For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder. After reissuing the miscellania collection We Are Time and dropping the new compilation Cabinet of Curiosities earlier this year, post-punk pioneers the Pop Group released Citizen Zombie in February 2015, their first new long-play in 35 years.
Art is Dead is an alternative/electronic quintet from Reykjavik, Iceland. The band struck a nerve with many Icelanders with their debut single “Bad Politics” in which they describe the corrupt political and financial landscape that devastated Iceland in September 2008. “Bad Politics” climbed to the peak of the Icelandic alternative hit list after braving the chart for seventeen weeks. Art is Dead are currently working on their debut album that is set to be released early 2016.
The first Icelandic band to ever win the Eiserner Eversteiner European Folk Music Award, Árstíðir became a YouTube phenomenon after a friend recorded an impromptu performance of “Heyr himna smiður” in the Bürger Bahnhof train station in Wuppertal. After a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund their new album, the band took up residence and composed the album’s songs in Toppstödin, an abandoned coal-fired power plant repurposed as a creative space. They then recorded Hvel at the studio Orgelsmiðjan, home to many of Iceland’s renowned recording artists. The result is a collection of songs which weave both traditional and electronically-inspired instrumental threads together with soaring vocal harmonies, and that critics have described as “beautiful and atmospheric” and “utterly mesmerizing.”
Manchester based electronic-pop duo BERNARD + EDITH is already firmly established within the city’s underground music scene, Greta ‘Edith’ Carroll and Nick ‘Bernard’ Delap draw on influences ranging from Fever Ray and Portishead via Cocteau Twins, David Lynch and Kate Bush to create the most deliciously dark art-pop/soul. With their much-anticipated debut album Jem out on 11/05/2015, BERNARD + EDITH have just unveiled a visually sumptuous video to new single “Heartache”. Directed by Iris Debaveye with costume design and styling by Myfanwy Holland, the Heartache video was a vision by BERNARD + EDITH. Set in a bubble Fantasy World, Heartache is a fluffy cushion for you to rest your head on and reflect on life after things go wrong.
CocoRosie’s Bianca Casady presents her new musical-performance project. ‘Bianca has been working on a kind of theatrical piece that we don’t know that much about, but we know that CocoRosie has a tendency to go fairly theatrical anyway. It should be very interesting, both musically and visually.’ (David Byrne) Working with longtime friends and collaborators (The C.i.A.), Bianca performs new music from her upcoming solo record. Dancer Biño Sauitzvy, with whom she has collaborated on several theatre pieces and many exhibitions, joins her in a series of performances which mark her debut as a solo artist in her own right. Bianca has been writing and recording songs on her own for many years. Her new record began with a hundred-year-old untunable piano and a collection of dusty typewriters, as piles of poems filtered into songs. She followed these dusty songs to Argentina where she finished the recordings and mixing of the album.
When ‘Airy Met Fairy is more of a project than a band. Many different musicians and video makers help create the minimalist but melancholic world of When ‘Airy Met Fairy. At the core, there is the fixed trio which consists of Thorunn Egilsdottir, Mike Koster, and Thomas Copier. WAMF sound engineer, Tom Gatti creates the airy fairy sound of the live shows.
East of My Youth is an Icelandic electro-band formed in 2014. Last summer the band released its first single “Lemonstars”. The band played two successful concerts at Iceland Airwaves last year and have since then been working on their first album. The band is touring in Berlin and Amsterdam this summer. East Of My Youth plays melodic, electronic pop and draws its influences from artists like Austra, FKA Twigs, Florence & The Machine etc.
The band TUSK was formed after Pálmi Gunnarsson, a well known singer and bassplayer from the Icelandic pop scene, got drummer Birgir Baldursson, guitarist Eðvarð Lárusson and super talented piano player Kjartan Valdemarsson, to do a gig for the jazzclub Múlinn. They met at the venue not really knowing what they wanted to play, but decided to do well known standards with a twist. Back in the 90´s Eðvarð and Birgir had been involved in all-improvised music and soon the two started pushing their agenda of free form gigging. When playing at a music festival in Nuuk, Greenland, in October 2013, the decision was made and the band became improv all the way. Since then the band has followed the path of free-form playing where no two gigs are alike, every song composed on the spot, never to be played again. In 2014 TUSK recorded their first album at the studio Sundlaugin. The album will be released this coming autumn.
Before Today was the band’s 4AD debut, offering the first sign that the intriguingly scatalogical music Ariel had been making for over a decade was finally ossifying into a coherent form. Indeed, the lead song from Before Today – the inimitable ‘Round and Round’ – was awarded Pitchfork’s track of the year for 2010, and further plaudits were heaped upon the long player as it cropped up in near-all end-of-year polls. For many it seemed that Ariel had finally reached the wider audience his early recordings had hinted was possible. And with Mature Themes, Haunted Graffiti have forged a record that raises the bar once again. Installing themselves in a studio space in downtown-LA, Haunted Graffiti began a lengthy process of writing and recording. Mature Themes is a self-produced affair, with former member Cole MGN drafted in to provide some drum programming and additional mixing duties. Far removed from Ariel’s early bedroom recordings, Mature Themes is a product of a more collaborative process, with the often-overlooked virtuoso musicianship of the band bought to the fore. “There are definitely not any links to my lo-fi origins”, Ariel recently told Spin magazine. “It’s so diverse but so different from anything I’ve done before. In a sense, it’s really the record I wanted to make back when I made Before Today, but couldn’t. We had time to let our hair down and try new things.” While the creative process was new, familiar Ariel Pink signatures remain. In fact, Mature Themes feels like the definitive Haunted Graffiti record, a patchwork of modern America, its esoteric reference points and moments of lyrical lucidity a twilight excursion through backwater LA and late-night TV channel hopping.
Skurken is the artist name of Jóhann Ómarsson, an electronic musician based in Reykjavík. Someone compared Skurken’s music to “trippin’ in the Moomin valley” – whatever that means. He could be right, although Skurken tries not to analyze his creations too much. Skurken‘s influences include everything from corny ’80s ballads to late ’90s drill&bass and old computer game themes. And probably elves and nature too. Skurken has been active for several years, has released 4 solo albums, had appearances on several compilations, made sound tracks to short films and more.
Soffía Björg hails from Borgarfjörður, a fjord in the west of Iceland. Although the waters of Borgarfjörður appear calm, the fjord has significant undercurrents and shallows. Soffía studied classical singing, swifted over to jazz & has fiddled with bluegrass & americana. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Composition. Soffía is currently working through a set of songs for her first album scheduled for release in 2016. As a warm up for the album she has now made available online the single ‘Back & Back Again’ where; “The music drifts along beautifully in a classic, dark hued setting while Soffía’s rough cut, yet warm voice, infuses it with a strange blend of innocence and danger.”
Andy Shauf is a storyteller, a singer of heartbreak and regrets, isolation and loneliness, reflecting his prairie surroundings in Regina, Canada. Meticulously written over four years, Shauf’s The Bearer of Bad News is a warm and welcoming album, bathed in weathered piano, dampened drums, softly-strummed guitars and clarinet, which lends its unique timbre to frequently brighten – or hauntingly underscore – the songs’ darker undercurrents.
Kiasmos is one part electronic mastermind Janus Rasmussen and one part classical maestro Ólafur Arnalds. They were brought together by their love of beer and music, and aim to get everyone to dance like there’s no tomorrow.
Named a One To Watch for 2015 via the likes of iTunes, Spotify and the BBC Sound Poll, SOAK has also announced details of her forthcoming debut album. ‘Before We Forgot How to Dream’ will be released on June 1st. Currently embarking on a free run of shows at skate-parks nationwide, Bridie has confirmed early festival slots (SXSW, Great Escape, Primavera) together with just-announced debut shows across America and Australia.
Fannar Ásgrímsson and Jónas Thór Guðmundsson both have released on the imprint before. The debut album was released in April 2012 and recieved good responses from critics and music fans. In 2014 the band released their second full-length album entitled Connection. The album finds the original duo of Ásgrímsson and Guðmundsson expanding into a trio that now encapsulates, their often go-to, French vocalist Oléna Simon. Connection also finds the band writing more from their respective parts of Europe. Their current bases of operation being Estonia, Iceland and France made the creation process a bit more challenging but the trio already has such a ‘connection’ that they can come together to make some of the best electronic-pop of their collective carriers regardless of geographic location or cultural background. In sharp juxtaposition to the artistic connection between the trio the underlying lyrical theme of the album is often about missed opportunities and missed connections. For the album’s single the trio teamed up with TugaMOVIL to create the first official music video for Asonat. Connection is subtle, gratifyingly warm and a perfect slice of vocally biased electronic music.
Born in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland, Sóley has been wowing audiences around the globe with her dark, fairytale song craft since 2010. After the “Theater Island” EP (2010) announced her as a solo musician, the fantastical, sepia-toned alt-pop tunes of debut full-length “We Sink” (2011) won her a massive, devoted fanbase: Often praised for her delicate take on composition, her songs’ “dream-like” qualities and “dark surrealism”, a track like “Pretty Face” has gained over 17 million YouTube views since its release. Having studied piano and later composition at the Icelandic Art Academy, Sóley Stefánsdóttir, who was formerly a member of the band Seabear, released a short EP entitled “Krómantík” in 2014, comprised of piano works originally composed for various theater/film productions, and is now about to return with her sophomore album Ask The Deep in early 2015. Still drawn to dark, nocturnal themes, Ask The Deep sees the bespectacled multi-instrumentalist branch out musically, both charting new sonic territory – and fighting the devil inside. Often inspired by poetry, Sóley’s tunes are the musical equivalent to dark fairytales, lucid dreams and childhood nightmares.
Beach House will release Depression Cherry, the band’s fifth album, on 28th August on Bella Union. The album will be released in North America on Sub Pop Records and Mistletone in Australia and New Zealand. Depression Cherry was produced and recorded by the band and Chris Coady at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana. About Beach House: Beach House is Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. We have been a band for over a decade living and working in Baltimore, MD. Depression Cherry is our 5th full-length record. This record follows the release of our self-titled album in 2006, Devotion in 2008, Teen Dream in 2010 and Bloom in 2012. Depression Cherry was recorded at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana from November ’14 through January ’15. This time period crossed the anniversaries of both John Lennon’s and Roy Orbison’s death.
Lost treasure needn’t be found in the distant past; the 21st century hides many artists who disappeared into the great wide yonder. BC Camplight is one such example. The alter-ego of American songwriter Brian Christinzio released albums in 2005 and 2007, both gems of a certain psych-pop vintage, combining eloquent songwriting with a self-destructive bent. Christinzio certainly knew it – he’s described himself as, “the guy who blew it.”
The Icelandic Opera will be performing the Barber of Seville with an all-new, all-Icelandic cast.
The Sunna Gunlaug trio is playing songs from their newest album in preparation for a European tour. Come see them off!
This rehearsal session of the Iceland Symphony is open to the public! It’s crazy early in the morning, but luckily Harpa has great coffee!
