Words by

Sveinbjörn Pálsson and Hannah Jane Cohen

Photo by

Ernir Eyjólfsson

The Extreme Chill festival schedule has been finalised. The avant-garde music festival that takes place September 6th-9th, with its focus on electronic music, moves between venues, setting up shop at the Harpa-Kaldalón music hall on Thursday, the vaunted Gamla Bíó on Friday, a bumper lineup at popular concert joint Húrra on the Saturday, and a chill final gig at the beautiful wooden Fríkirkjan church, located by Tjörnin pond. The Kaldalón gig is headlined by aYia and Bára Gísladóttir, Kenichi & The Sun and Sillus. Gamla Bíó offers Jan Jelinek, Marsen Jules, Mankan and Nicolas Kunysz. At Húrra the big act will be Banco De Gaia, with Hermigervill, Astrid Sonne, dj. flugvél og geimskip and Forest Management, plus others. Fríkirkjan Is headlined by Sóley, who debuted a more electronic project at Airwaves last year, plus Studnizky and Andrew Heath. Tickets & info at www.extremechill.org. SP

Lesbians all around Iceland nearly seizured last week as it was announced that pop icon Hayley Kiyoko will be performing at this years upcoming Iceland Airwaves. Exes were called as conversation immediately turned from Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Nanette’ to how exactly carpools will be organised to the festival. Snacks were planned. Playlists were made. Outfits were drawn up. Hummus was consumed. If you’re unaware of the magnificence that is Hayley, she’s one of the most groundbreaking pop artists around, creating catchy dance tunes that work to normalise lesbian relationships in the extremely heteronormative pop music industry. So catch us in the front of the crowd. We’ll be there, crying like Eurovision came early. HJC

People are losing their shit over the new Birnir album, Matador, produced by Arnar Ingi aka Young Nazareth aka Cuz, released on Les Frères Stefson, the powerhouse label behind so many of Iceland’s leading young artists, particularly in hip-hop. The album, which many of our sources are calling a strong contender for album of the year, strikes a resoundingly sophomore tone for the young rapper. It features collaborations with some likely suspects, like labelmates Unnsteinn (of Retro Stefson fame), it-boy rapper Joey Christ, like-minded autotune crooner slash rapper Flóni and Iceland’s most striking rising star of the year, songstress GDRN, but also an interesting genre crossover, a collaboration with Jófríður Ákadóttir of Samaris, aka JFDR. SP