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The View From The Piano: Damon Albarn’s Love Affair With Iceland
I’m at the Reykjavík home of Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz fame, sitting in his living room—an enormous space whose defining feature is the window spanning the entirety of one wall, offering a view of a more untouched part of Reykjavík…
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From ‘What If’ To Reality: GDRN Talks Storytelling Through Music And Acting
Telling your story takes courage. Telling someone else’s story takes empathy. Guðrún Ýr Eyfjörð Jóhannesdóttir, or GDRN as she’s known in front of the mic, is no stranger to either. First launching into the public eye as a refreshing young voice in…
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Crowded House: Parliamentary Elections In The Pandemic
Correction: Independence Party candidate Viktor Ingi Lorange is, in fact, neither an immigrant nor of foreign extraction, despite his inclusion amongst these candidates. This was a mistake on my part, and for that I sincerely apologise, to him and to our readers.…
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Being Nonbinary: In Iceland And Everywhere
The existence of nonbinary people is gaining slow but steady recognition in many Eurocentric countries—Iceland included. While we celebrate the fact that Iceland officially allows for a third legal gender marker—X—and has somewhat relaxed their naming laws, most of the challenges nonbinary…
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The Full Spectrum Of Life: A New Day For Hipsumhaps
Hipsumhaps first made a splash on the Icelandic music scene in 2019 with their first album, ‘Best Gleymdu Leyndarmálin’ (‘Best Forgotten Secrets’), bringing dreamy, guitar-driven indie pop to a scene that had all but forgotten about the genre. At the time, the…
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Cleaning House: ÚTL, Evictions and Deportations to Greece
Last spring, the Directorate of Immigration (ÚTL) made an executive decision that would thrust the institution into the spotlight of criticism that extended from the general public and into the halls of Parliament: evicting asylum seekers from their housing, denying them even…
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The Message In The Magma: The Geldingadalir Eruption Site Is Growing—What Have We Learned?
On March 19th, 2021, the world’s gaze turned to Iceland as fissures opened in the Geldingadalir valley—the first eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula in over 800 years. Initially, scientists predicted the volcano would erupt for a matter of days or weeks. This…
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Iceland’s MeToo Movement: Breaking The Cycle
Last month, the greater Icelandic public was reminded that the MeToo movement never really went away. This was kicked off when two women came forward on May 5th saying that the well-known podcaster and media personality Sölvi Tryggvason had sexually assaulted them.…
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Tales Of A Michigan Boy: The Open Book Of John Grant
“I suppose I never really tire of going back over my life, and trying to figure out what the fuck happened.” John Grant—musician of international renown and Reykjavík resident for the last decade—has some stories to tell while he does that figuring.…
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From Reykjavík To Rainy-Vík: A Stormy South Coast Trip
We had a great plan for this month’s travel feature: a road trip along the south coast of Iceland, a journey to Nauthúsagil Waterfall and telling the fascinating yet haunting history of the ravine. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned here,…
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The Sleeping Giant: Earthquakes And Volcanoes In Reykjanes
By the time you read this, a volcano may have erupted in Reykjanes, Iceland’s southwestern peninsula and the home of the Keflavík International Airport. It’s also possible that the magma currently moving under the surface of the Earth has retreated, or that…
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The High Cost Of Living: Renting And Being Foreign In Reykjavik
Upon first moving to Iceland, the primary factor that must be arranged is a place to live; if one is from outside the European Economic Area, in most cases this has to be established before even setting foot in the country. For…
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The Grapevine Music Awards 2021: The Winners Are Here!
Oh, you thought a pandemic would stop us? No way! It’s January, and that means the Grapevine Music Awards 2021 is here! As is tradition, we at the Grapevine once again (virtually) convened a panel of valued experts (see who they were…
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Sigur Rós Survives: Endings, Eddas And ‘Odin’s Raven Magic’
The end is nigh. You feel it in your bones. Each time you read the news, each time your phone beeps with fresh tidings of another catastrophe, there’s a sense of unravelling, a sense that we can’t possibly keep hurtling from one…
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A Stacked Deck: Police, Courts, And The Right To Protest In Iceland
Icelanders have developed a positive reputation for their protests. Praised for having driven a government out of power, for pressuring authorities to prosecute bankers, and for organising the draft for a new constitution, to any outside observers it would appear as though…
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Where Is The New Constitution? – A Nation Still Waits For Iceland 2.0
The collapse of Iceland’s economy in late 2008 incited a tremendous amount of anger in the nation’s people. While the Special Investigation Commission sought to determine who and what were to blame for the collapse, the feeling amongst many Icelanders was that…
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Iceland’s Unlikely Role In Space Exploration: From 1965 And Into The Future
With the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, Earth’s exploration of space began in earnest. Since then, the focus had been primarily on two countries—Russia and the United States—although in more recent times, India, China, Japan and a host of others have…
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Hunting For Mythical Creatures In The Furthest North
Hat? Check. Parka? Check. Gloves? Check. Some people might tell you that September is still technically summer. Some people would be wrong—at least when talking about Iceland. So, what can we do instead of sunbathing? How about some troll hunting? North Of…
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The Evolution of Gyða: On Music, Multiple Dimensions Of Love, And Our Collective Future
Gyða Valtýsdóttir could be at once described as a cellist, composer, artist and mystic but categories are something she feels are divisive. Over the course of our conversation, this is a recurring theme: not only has she evolved a great deal since…
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GusGus, The Impossible Band: 25 Years Of Intrigue, Drama And Music
None of this was supposed to happen. GusGus was just supposed to be a short film, not a band. And even when it became a band, and remained a band, it—in some ways—still felt like more than a band. Cycling through catastrophes,…
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The Laugavegur Trail Diaries: A Tale Of Snow, Steam And Sunburns
Stretching 54 km between the geothermal hot pools of Landmannalaugar and the luscious Þórsmörk valley, the Laugavegur trail is something of a rite of passage for Icelanders. Complete it and you enter an elite class of hikers—at least that’s what we told…
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Travel Like A Tourist: Journeying Through Iceland Like An Icelander
Presenting: The Ultimate Grapevine Travel Iceland Guide. Scroll down for our favourite places in the north, east, south, west and more. It truly feels like we are living in dystopian times. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the world in such nuanced…
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Art In The Time Of Corona: Can Inherently Social Art Survive Isolation?
In this current climate, artists of all mediums are facing difficulties. When stuck in social distancing, quarantining, or—God forbid—dealing with the virus itself, how do those who rely on shows and concerts to sustain and spread their word? To find out, the…