Grayson’s Thursday Night Iceland Airwaves Diary: Fusing Tradition & Floating Home

I eased into my first official day of Airwaves with Andervel at Lucky Records. The Iceland-based Mexican-born musician has crafted a unique brand of folk that fuses together the traditions of two very different places, with the dreamy and ethereal harmonies of Iceland combined with warm and emotive lyrics in Spanish, Icelandic, and English.

Red Illuminations for The Reykjavík Grapevine

This extends even into the imagery of his lyrics with a song called “Iron Clad and Palm Trees” and manages to transport the listener to a gentler place in the imagination with the best of both worlds.

Next, I stopped by to see CYBER at 12 Tónar and I could hear the bass bumping out the windows from blocks away. The pair’s brand of electro pop is hard to categorize, just a tiny bit discordant but undeniably catchy. Their performance featured light choreography with coordinated hair flips and an incredible take on Britney Spears’ underrated bop “Overprotected.”

GDRN was the first to grace the stage of the Art Museum and tried her best to warm up the crowd with her jazz- and funk-infused timeless pop sound. She even got us to mime answering the phone and hanging up on her ex-boyfriend in unison.

Atli Freyr Steinsson for The Reykjavík Grapevine

Next up in the museum was Ravyn Lanae, who surprised with a flawless performance, overflowing with soul and charm. I’m loathe to call it vintage, but her classic r&b sounds bring to mind the greats of the late 90s and early 00s. A kind of one-woman Destiny’s Child for the Frank Ocean age, she was dressed to match and, more importantly, she delivered.

Atli Freyr Steinsson for The Reykjavík Grapevine

Magdalena Bay gave us synth-pop, but with a little dose of demonic possession. Dwarfed by a giant winged mirror showing images ranging from CDs to eyeballs to the lead singer being scalped, they were upbeat, and adorable, but also vaguely menacing. Uche Yara was another pleasant surprise for me, with her frenetic mix of pop-rock genres. Funky and fun at moments and grungy and garage-y at others, she displayed an incredible range. Her range doesn’t stop at style either. I swear I did a double take the first time she dropped in register, showing off how low she could go with her vocals, because I thought there was a man somewhere singing that part.

The highlight of the night for me, however, was Orbit. His hypnotic beats take the forefront while the guitar riffs and whispery, distorted vocals with nearly unintelligible lyrics provide the backdrop. Reminiscent of Moderat and maybe a tiny bit of James Blake, the spacey atmosphere he created had the gravity to finally pull in the otherwise stiff audience, who loosened up and lost themselves in the music.

There was a small technical error when the batteries in his keytar died. He used the moment to introduce the audience to his roommate/tour manager with a sheepish smile and the already-programmed robot voice on his microphone, revealing the warm and kind person behind the mysterious musician at the keyboard. The batteries were replaced, the show went on, and they finished with with a synth-powered bang followed by a huge hug between the musicians and a humble bow like actors.

I don’t think I was the only one who floated out of Kolaportið and all the way home.

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