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Airwaves Never Sleeps: PJ Harvey & More Announced For 2016
The people behind the Iceland Airwaves festival haven’t been resting on their laurels this winter—they’ve been beavering away in the darkness to prepare the 2016 festival. They today unveiled the first names of the 2016 lineup, which includes two eye-catching overseas names:…
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Future Aesthetics: Holly Herndon Pushes The Boundaries
Holly Herndon’s ‘Platform’ is one of the most dense, dizzying, constantly surprising electronica LPs of recent times. Devoutly experimental in nature, it melds broken beats, chopped-up chants, drones, spoken poetic fragments, lush synth textures, and all manner of stretched, shattered, pulverised electronic…
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It’s Museum Night Tonight! Here’s A Brief Guide…
Tonight is Museum Night in Reykjavík—an annual evening during which the city’s museums stay open late, with many hosting special events, and all offering free entry from 7pm till midnight. The full programme is here, but we went through it and picked…
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Bára Gísladóttir’s Performances Are Full Of Surprises
In a dimly lit, pin-drop quiet Mengi, young composer and musician Bára Gísladóttir lies onstage on her back, behind her double bass. Barely visible, she starts to make sound—a breathy growling, that builds into a throaty roar, and then a howl. Bára…
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Holly Herndon On The Excitement Of Live Performance
Ahead of the forthcoming Sónar Reykjavík festival, we recently spoke at length to rising electronica star Holly Herndon, who’ll be performing on Friday 19th at SonarHall. You can read our particularly edifying interview in our next issue, out on Friday, which features…
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Visit Sólheimajökull: A Glacier In Retreat
As the dizzy heights of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier come into view, most people understandably feel a magnetic pull to the otherworldly ice cap. The most accessible place to satisfy the urge get your feet on the ice is Sólheimajökull. Various tour companies…
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On Your Own: Six Spots In South Iceland
The majestic Route One ring road threads down through the mountains from Reykjavík to Iceland’s southern coastline, passing an endless trove of natural wonders along the way. From the famous “Golden Circle”, to the various vast lava fields, tumbling glacier tongues, tiny…
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PHOTOS: Grapevine In Greenland – The Director’s Cut
Last November, we took a one-week trip to Greenland, visiting the cities and towns of Nuuk, Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut. Along the way, we tried to pack in everything we could, from dog-sledding over a frozen lake to checking out local foods, politic,…
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Frontier Photography: Ásgeir Pétursson’s Amazing Greenland Pictures
Ásgeir Pétursson is a 23-year-old photographer who’s just opened an exhibition at Reykjavík’s Greenland Centre, at the top of Laugavegur. He first went to Greenland in January 2014, supposedly to visit with his relocated parents for two weeks, but wound up staying…
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A Space Of Colour: Tonik Ensemble On Making The Album Of 2015
Sometimes, “dance music” goes beyond its implied mission of moving people’s feet, and moves them in other ways, too. Grapevine’s album of the year 2015—Tonik Ensemble’s ’Snapshots’—does just that. An educated, simmering take on house-techno-pop, it’s a lush production of cello, saxophone…
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Presenting: The Year 2015 In #Hashtags, #Gates & #Thrones
Wow, 2015 went by FAST, huh. There was so much going on! The real world continued to turn, and to contain almost all of IRL human existence inside its atmosphere. And in that parallel online planet, THE INTERNET, people shared, discussed, reported,…
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Sónar Unveil More Exciting Lineup Additions
With the 2016 Sonar festival only four weeks away, the festival has released the final additions to the festival lineup. If you’ve been reading about our 2016 music awards in the new issue, you’ll be pleased to see Tonik added the lineup.…
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Wow Air Puts California Routes On Sale
WOW Air’s new California routes went on sale this morning, with limited one-way fares to Los Angeles and San Francisco available for $99. Wow Air have invested in new long-range planes to accommodate the West Coast journeys, which are the latest addition…
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Loving The Alien: Growing Up With David Bowie
When I was six years old, one of my cousins recorded some fragment of a music TV programme on VHS tape. One of the videos was for David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” I was fascinated, lying in front of the TV, and rewinding…
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Call It Magic: Enter The World of Kira Kira
Kira Kira, aka Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, stands at the front of a low-lit lecture theatre. As music students file in, she plays a deep, harmonic sound over the speakers, and wafts a smouldering piece of Palo Stanto “Holy Wood” in circles, spreading…
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James Merry Embroiders Designer Clothing For Highlands Campaign
Rapidly up ‘n’ coming embroidery artist James Merry—well known for his work with Björk, as both an assistant and collaborator—has joined forces with UK fashion website SHOWstudio to support the Protect The Park campaign. The campaign aims to apply pressure to those…
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I Love The Smell Of Fireworks In The Morning: New Year In Reykjavík
Reykjavík rang in the new year last night with a customary bang. As well as displays in all of the various municipalities of the city’s metropolitan area, there were countless displays fired off from people’s back yards, making for a huge and…
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Into The Wild: A Week Of Nature And Culture In Greenland
The descent to Greenland begins suddenly, after four turbulent hours of flying through a constant storm. I squeeze down into the cramped seat, tilting my head horizontally to see outside, nose touching the cold glass. Vague shapes appear through the iced-up windows…
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Light Festival To Launch In Seyðisfjörður, Open Call To Artists
The culturally vibrant town of Seyðisfjörður in east Iceland will be illuminated by a new small festival in 2016. On February 19 and 20, the darkness of the winter will be lit up by List í Ljósi, a celebration of light art.…
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Happening Tonight: Bára Gísladóttir Album Release Show
Bára Gísladóttir is a composer and a double bassist who recently successfully kickstarted a €3000 Karolina Fund campaign to create her first album, ‘Different Rooftops’. The album features compositions written for combinations of voice, tenor saxophone, double bass and electronics, and launches…
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“Anything Can Happen”: Ghostigital Converse Through Art
Curver Thoroddsen and Einar Örn Benediktsson are an interesting pair. Together, they form Ghostigital—a spasmodic, apoplectic, one-off electronic-punk duo known for intense, confusing, abstract stage performances. So it comes as little surprise to find their creative energy also overspills into individual art…
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High Speed Rail Link From Keflavik To Reykjavík?
News has surfaced that a group of private investors are looking into the possibilities of building a high-speed rail link between Keflavik Airport and BSÍ Reykjavík. Currently, everyone landing in the airport is either picked up by relatives or friends in cars…
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!!!, DJ Annie Mac And More For Sónar Reykjavík 2016
Sónar Reykjavík continue to drip-feed the names of confirmed artists for their 2016 edition. The big names this time are !!!, the hydra-headed NYC party band spawned for the 00s punk-funk era, and the revered UK DJ and tastemaker Annie Mac. Joining…
