Wide Awake: Punk Pioneers Purrkur Pillnikk Star In A New Documentary

In August 1982, punk rock four-piece Purrkur Pillnikk played their final show at the Melarokk festival in Reykjavík. Their short, tight set featured five new songs emanating a power and drive that “had rarely been better,” as the newspaper Tíminn would write.

Dubbed Orð Fyrir Dauða, this set marked the end of Purrkur Pillnikk. They had released just two albums (Ekki Enn and Googooplex) and one seven-inch record (Tilf). Nevertheless, according to Dr. Gunni’s seminal history book Stuð Vors Lands, the band’s “death throes” lasted for a few months. An EP called No Time To Think — recorded during their tour with The Fall — came out later that year, and a third album, Maskínan, followed in 1983. Two years later, with new drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson onboard, the band played live again.

“We are in great spirits. After all, we’re newly dead,” said frontman Einar Örn Benediktsson to the audience at Félagsstofnun Stúdenta that night. “Only three years old. Newly deceased. We have a terrible odour, which amuses us, and we are high.”

The living dead

Nearly forty years later in 2023, Einar Örn, Bragi Ólafsson, Friðrik Erlingsson and Sigtryggur gathered once more to create studio recordings of that suite of five songs for the first time. Many labelled it a reunion — but Einar Örn begged to disagree.

“We have a terrible odour, which amuses us, and we are high.”

“The band has not decided to reform in the traditional music business sense,” he tells the Grapevine, while driving circles around Reykjavík. “We wanted to record Orð Fyrir Dauða as it is our only set of songs which we hadn’t recorded in a studio. And we wanted to make a proper delivery of that. We got Bambus [director Kolbeinn Hringur Bambus Einarsson] with us in the studio to film our work, which evolved from making five music videos for Orð Fyrir Dauða into the documentary Sofandi Vakandi Lifandi Dauður (‘Sleeping Awake Living Dead’, in English).”

The resulting 53-minute film by Bambus and Tómas Sturluson captures the band in several temporal realms. It begins with slow-motion footage remembering Purrkur Pillnikk’s original drummer Ásgeir Ragnar Bragason, who died in 2015. The following collage of newspaper clippings, archival images and video fragments from Melarokk sets the pace for a quick and flickering look at the band’s 18-month lifetime.

Although Orð Fyrir Dauða implied the band’s departure — the title means “Words Before Death” — Einar Örn informed the audience at Melarokk that their idea of death was a perverted one. “It’s the greatest misunderstanding among you guests that we are dead; we will never die.”

The title sums up the band’s enduring influence, juxtaposed against the temporary state of everything else. It also encapsulates a more profound sense of time and appreciation for the present moment. “It was our words before death,” says Einar Örn. “While we were active, we managed to make a song at nearly every rehearsal. We are unstoppable.”

Highbrow and lowbrow

Watching the documentary, we fast forward to Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð in 2023, where Einar, Bragi, Friðrik, and Sigtryggur are pictured reminiscing about their first rehearsal which took place at the school. “I believe the difference between highbrow and lowbrow music has never been clearer than at that moment,” guitarist Friðrik says on the screen, recalling the moment when Purrkur Pillnikk were nearly kicked out of the rehearsal room by choir conductor Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir.

“Þorgerður showed up and didn’t look particularly happy… she asked us simply to stop.”

“When we started making some noise downstairs in the basement, Þorgerður showed up and didn’t look particularly happy,” says bassist Bragi Ólafsson. “She asked us simply to stop.”

The film features several thought-provoking interviews with present-day local tastemakers. Commentators include Smekkleysa co-founder Ásmundur Jónsson and artists of different generations — seasoned DJ Andrea Jónsdóttir, young punks Gróa, and Blóðmör’s Haukur Þór Valdimarsson — all of whom try to get to grips with the phenomenon of Purrkur Pillnikk.

It’s no easy task. Words like “strange” and “mysterious” are said several times in the documentary.  Purrkur Pillnikk themselves describe it more simply, labelling their sound — influenced by the CBGB scene and Britain’s anarcho-punk and new wave — simply as “Purrkur” music.

Either way, Purrkur Pillnikk were punk pioneers in the North Atlantic. Their open-minded approach attracted collaborators from spaces that were musically different but shared the same disobedient intensity, much like the high chieftain of the pagan Ásatrú society Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson.

It’s about what you actually do

Presenting a local context against the global narrative, the directors of Sofandi Vakandi Lifandi Dauður cleverly incorporate footage from protests in France. Featuring superimposed computer game graphics and blurry motions, this sequence resonates with the direct and close-to-over-the-edge attitude of Purrkur Pillnikk. Footage of the 1957 visit of German-Argentinian chess grandmaster Herman Pilnik hints at the inspiration for the band’s name.

“Purrkur Pillnikk meant nothing at the beginning. But now it’s a line between sanity and insanity.”

“When we were editing the film, a close friend of ours from France, Lory Glenn, showed us an art piece he was working on,” says Bambus Einarsson. “As soon as we saw it, we knew we had to collaborate with him and use his footage. The footage itself is from a protest over a water reservoir in Sainte Soline. The piece is called Sécurise tes images: Détruis-les.”

Another revelation that happened during production was the discovery of a music video by Þór Elís Pálsson on VHS tape. “We started to dig into all sorts of archives — through newspapers, RÚV archives and a big collection that Bragi’s mother had collected,” says Bambus. “We heard that there might have been some sort of music video for the band. It sounded like a myth. No one remembered exactly what it was, but people were confident that it was the first proper Icelandic music video.”

The search led them to Þór Elís, who started trying to find the video. “It became sort of hopeless that it would pop up,” says Bambus. “The documentary was ready — but then he finally found the missing piece. He even has some clues about where the master tape is, so it’s exciting to see if that will be found too.”

Both directors are candid when discussing their personal connections with Purrkur Pillnikk. “Purrkur Pillnikk meant nothing at the beginning,” says Tómas. “But now it’s a line between sanity and insanity — a very fine one but easy to walk on. They are truly amazing and inspiring in a lot of different ways, with their quotes like the famous, ‘It’s not about what you’re able to do, but what you actually do.’ That applies to everything.”

“Everything is possible if you hold this life motto close to you,” sums up Bambus.

Sofandi Vakandi Lifandi Dauður is screening at Bíó Paradís. The Orð Fyrir Dauða reissue box set by Purrkur Pillnikk includes the band’s discography, available at Smekkleysa, Hverfisgata 32.