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SMOKE THE CROWS. It’s a Sónar Podcast Feat. dj flugvél og geimskip!
This week’s studio guest in our second Sónar Reykjavík Podcast is Steinunn, the pilot of the wonderful one-woman-band dj flugvél og geimskip. She came in to pick some songs and to tell us about how the bottom of the ocean is actually…
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What? An Airwaves ’15 Announcement Already? Okay!
Hey you! Stop drinking that honey & lemon flu drink and pause your Friends marathon for the next one minute and ten seconds. Because even though it’s January and Airwaves ’14 feels like it just finished, the festival has already announced the…
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Music For Dark Days
As Reykjavík society withdraws from the bleak northern winter into a post-Christmas domestic bubble, the city’s cultural calendar looks uncharacteristically bare. But fear not, because for four days in January, there’s an event housed in the warm and airy confines of Harpa,…
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I Love The Smell Of Planning In The Morning
Sónar Reykjavík has this morning released the full schedule for the 2015 event, which features a total of 68 artists spread across three days. So if you’re planning on a tightly-planned festival experience spent marching between the stages to catch 15 minutes…
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Sandra Kolstad Unveils Iceland-Inspired Video
Berlin-based Norwegian pop artist Sandra Kolstad has released a very fancy video for her new single My Yellow Heart, shot late last year right here in Iceland. It shows Sandra galloping and running across what looks like Heiðmörk and Solheimasandur, with avalanches,…
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See Sísý Ey’s Sónar Reykjavík Picks
Sigga Eyþórsdóttir is one of the three sisters that combine with producer Oculus to form Icelandic house troupe Sísý Ey. They shot to prominence via their earworm single Ain’t Got Nobody. In 2013-14 they played Sónar festivals in Stockholm, Reykjavík and Barcelona,…
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Three Hours Of Sun Is A Luxury
Although at 64° N Reykjavík is the world’s northernmost capital city, the most northerly permanently populated site on Earth is Svalbard. Located at 78° N, this Norwegian archipelago is about halfway between the edge of continental Europe and the North Pole. Winter…
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Listicle: A Survival Guide For The Darkest Months
In Reykjavík and beyond, there are some activities that are available only in the winter season. January can be made into a lively month, with a few ideas and a bit of willpower—never before has the frozen city pond looked as inviting,…
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SAD Times: The Effects Of Winter—And How To Fight Back
When I meet working psychologist and PhD student Erla Björnsdóttir, it’s already dark outside. Reykjavík’s streets are becoming treacherous as compacted snow freezes into sheets of slippery ice, and the streetlights have been lit for a couple of hours already, throughout the…
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Björk Speaks On Vulnicura And Feminism
Pitchfork have published the first new interview with Björk, in which she discusses the making of Vulnicura. She expresses nervy anticipation of releasing such a personal album into the world: I’m a little nervous. Definitely. Especially coming from an album like Biophilia,…
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Hear Our First Sónar Podcast, Feat. Tonik
Sónar Reykjavík 2015 is just around the corner, and who better to guide us through the performers on show than the mastermind behind one of the Icelandic bands playing the festival? In the first of a series of Sónar-related podcasts, we sat…
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Björk’s Vulnicura: First Listen
And so, and so, and so. When I woke up this morning, I was expecting a day of working, recovering from a nasty bout of flu, and just staying inside in the warmth, looking out of the window onto Njálsgata. I was…
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Björk’s Vulnicura To Come Out Worldwide Within 24 Hours
Björk’s eighth studio album, Vulnicura, has appeared much sooner than expected. After the record leaked onto the internet, Björk has announced via Facebook that the album is to be released worldwide over the next 24 hours – indeed, it’s already available on…
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Festival Season Forever!
After reading about all the SAD and darkness in this issue, are you now dreading the dark and icy stretch of February? Well don’t shit yourself quite yet, friend, because the Sónar festival has fixed that for you. For the uninitiated, Sónar…
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Tourist of the Year 2014
Wow, tourism really did dominate the landscape of debate here in 2014, didn’t it? We here at Grapevine have spent more time experiencing, arguing, analysing and pondering the effects of tourism on Iceland than maybe anything else. And there was some serious…
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Full Sónar Lineup Unveiled, Including 27 More Icelandic Acts
The 2015 Sónar festival has revealed the final 27 names for their 2015 lineup. All of them are from the home team, representing a diverse range of Iceland’s brightest talents. So in addition to the “HERE COMES THE DROP” bass wibbles of…
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Eyrarrós Arts Award Open For Applications
The Eyrarrós awards have announced that the 2015 edition is open for applications. An annual event that celebrates Icelandic arts projects born outside of Reykjavík, Eyrarrós carries with it a grand prize of 1.65m ISK (€10,719). Whilst that might be a drop…
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Weird Icelandic Spirits Revealed
If you’re interested in “Icelandic stuff” (which let’s face it, you probably are if you’re on this website – thanks for that, by the way, we love you) you may have caught a glimpse of Arngrimur Sigurðsson’s Duldýrasafnið project on social media…
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All You Need Is Love. And Icelandic Gourmet Chocolate
Imagine an abandoned gas station office. A few things might spring to mind. An empty room with peeling walls, seen only by kids who’ve snuck in to smoke a joint. A dark, dusty old shack you could set a horror movie in.…
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Jamie xx Joins Sónar Reykjavík Lineup
Sónar Reykjavík 2015 has unveiled several local and international additions to their 2015 lineup, Grapevine can exclusively reveal. Jamie xx – so named after his work with platinum-selling torch-song band The xx, who recorded in Iceland recently – has been building a…
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Just Go Join A Freakin’ Snake Cult Why Don’t You?
Just Another Snake Cult have released a weird and awesome new video from their lauded LP “Cupid Makes A Fool Of Me”. Premiered recently in the UK by Clash Magazine, and in Germany by top blog i.am.no.superman, we’re happy to present the…
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Government To Charge For Iceland’s Nature
With the annual turnover of overseas visitors set to break the one million mark for the first time this year, Icelandic politicians, companies and citizens have long been considering how best to cope with growing pains connected to the country’s tourism explosion. The problem…
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Get The Track! Rökkurró – Blue Skies
Reykjavík sextet Rökkurró have come back to Earth since their last album, ‘Í annan heim’ (“To Another World”). Gone are the hushed vocals and guitars that gave that record its dreamy sheen, replaced now with a more polished and earthy pop sound,…
