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Didaskophilia
The Biophilia project has extended its tendrils into many unexpected areas. Its accompanying education outreach programme aims to encourage creativity, whilst using new technology as a gateway to science and music learning. This approach combines the use of cutting-edge apps based on…
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Tying A Ribbon On Biophilia
Sitting upstairs at Iðnó, pouring out a cup of coffee in a fetching fluorescent yellow ensemble, an animated Björk is expressing how pleased and surprised she is that people still want to talk about her work. “I spoke to someone earlier who…
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This Is Not The First Time We’ve Seen Change
Reykjavík Art Museum’s Hafnarhús is making more noise than usual. Normally a quiet gallery building, today it’s throbbing with bass, the big glass windows rattling in their frames. Through an open service door, the cavernous main hall ripples with light—against the back…
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Mexico
Gusgus didn’t seem like a band that was in it for the long haul. Starting as a loosely strung collective of musicians, filmmakers, producers and vocalists, they seemed to the outsider like a mercurial proposition—a bubbling experimental formula with equal potential to…
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Over The Glacier: Ice Hiking On Vatnajökull
Vatnajökull is the second largest glacier in all of Europe, covering 8% of Iceland’s land mass and dominating the southeast corner of the country. Visible only on clear days, the glacier’s peak sits atop a vast sheet of compacted snow and ice,…
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Biophilia Keeps Growing
Björk’s Biophilia continues to run and run, still growing new branches and tendrils three years after its live premiere at the Manchester International Festival. One addition is Biophilia 203, a continuation of the education project that the album spawned, which is currently…
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“Well, It Was Probably A Tourist That Did It…”
Laugavegur, running as it does directly through the heart of 101 Reykjavík, becomes a very cosmopolitan street in summertime. Temporarily pedestrianised, it transforms into a lively boulevard filled with music, street food, public art, craft stalls, picnic tables, sun-loungers, and rails of…
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Two Women Attacked In Downtown Reykjavík, Appeal For Witnesses
Two women were first harassed and then assaulted in downtown Reykjavík in the early hours of Saturday 30th August. A man started accosting them in Hverfisgata, outside Bar 11, at about 4.45am, in both Icelandic and English. When his drunken advances failed,…
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Björk’s Biophilia Film To Premiere In Reykjavík This Week
Björk’s Biophilia tour went on for almost two years, scoring a huge hit with critics and audiences around the world due to it’s innovative, immersive production. After a long process of trying to fund a definitive concert film of the project, it…
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40 More Acts Announced For Iceland Airwaves
After the big reveal of The Knife’s Iceland Airwaves performance last week, the festival has released 40 new additions for the 2014 edition. The announcement includes a fine selection of local artists, including Grapevine’s band of the year Sin Fang, the Ólafur…
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Glacial Wonderland: Ice Hiking In Vatnajökull
Vatnajökull is the second largest glacier in all of Europe, covering 8% of Iceland’s land mass and dominating the southeast corner of the country. Visible only on clear days, the glacier’s peak sits atop a vast sheet of compacted snow and ice,…
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Keflavík: Home Of Icelandic Rock ‘N’ Roll
All Tomorrows Parties acquired cult status almost the moment it was conceived. Its line-ups betray a strong aesthetic that differs from much of the festival landscape, both figuratively and literally—rather than stages set up in fields and live music happening out under…
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Secret Solstice: Futuregrapher And Lord Pusswhip SPEAK
A Few Words With Futuregrapher Árni Gretar is Futuregrapher, and one half of Árni2, both of whom will play at Secret Solstice. He’s a central figure at Møller Records and Reykjavík’s Weirdcore collective, famous for searing live performances with big beats and…
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A Summer Blockbuster?
Fredrik Ólafsson, the man behind the Secret Solstice festival, is a tricky man to pin down. A short while before we’re due to meet at the festival HQ in Reykjavík 105, I get a phone call from the press officer offering to…
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Akureyri: Home Comforts And Cosmopolitan Culture
Akureyri, located on Iceland’s longest fjord, Eyjafjörður, is often referred to as Iceland’s second city, or “the capital of the North.” With a population of just under 18,000, “city” is probably pushing it a bit, but Akureyri is a thriving and charming…
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Blue Sky Thinking
Deciding on a finale for a festival whose theme is ‘art as a living process’ must have been something of a challenge. What could be a fitting work that’s at once suitably celebratory and attention-grabbing, and yet ephemeral, temporary or open-ended? Enter…
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Not Finished
Nestled between two fancy restaurants on Lækjargata is an impressive white house that overlooks the town pond, with a castellated tower called “Gimli.” It´s oddly discreet for such a grand building, semi-obscured by trees, and marked only with a small silver plaque.…
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From Heavenly Lakes to Hell’s Gates: Seeing Northern Iceland
Seeing Iceland from the air can be an astounding experience. From the soft blue-grey washes of coastal estuaries and floodwater plains, to black flatlands with their gleaming silver rivers, to expanses of blinding white glaciers—a flight over the Icelandic heartland is often…
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Everything In A Cake
The phrase “allt í köku” is one of the Icelandic language’s many interesting, old-fashioned aphorisms. It roughly translates as “everything in a cake,” and while that might not sound like such a bad thing, the phrase is actually a way of saying…
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Icelandic Art, If There Is Such A Thing
On the ground floor of a grey apartment building, across from Reykjavík’s old harbour, around the corner from the Reykjavík Art Museum, and a five minute walk from the heart of the city’s centre, sits a quiet gallery space which takes its…
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In Another World
Iceland’s highlands make up most of the country’s landmass—a vast expanse of largely uninhabited, mountainous terrain dominated by a volcanic desert and several towering glaciers. It’s the largest single area of untouched wilderness left in Europe, and home to a range of…
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Björk-Fronted Campaign Raises 35 Million ISK For Environment
Harpa played home to three big names from the world arts stage yesterday when Björk, Darren Aronofsky and Patti Smith joined two Icelandic conservation agencies to launch the ‘Stopp – Gætum Garðsins!’ benefit concert. At a press conference held outside Harpa’s Eldborg…
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Just Another Snake Cult
Just Another Snake Cult’s ‘Cupid Makes A Fool Of Me’ could be described as a concept album on the theme of love. But if the very idea of such a thing is enough to make you run for the hills, stop and…
