Music News: Icelandic Women Make A Splash, Hatari, And More!

Two Icelandic women are amongst those nominated for the 2020 Grammy Awards, setting a historic precedent for Icelandic music. Anna Þorvaldsdóttir (above) has been nominated for Best Engineered Album, Classical, for her album ‘Aequa.’ Hildur Guðnadóttir has been nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for her composition of the ‘Chernobyl’ score. It bears mentioning that she has already secured an Emmy win for the score for episode two of the series, “Please Remain Calm”. Will two Icelandic women go home with Grammy awards on January 26th? Only time will tell, but we’re rooting for them both. AF

The grim-postmodern-scream-of-angst-and-BDSM-fueled-anti-hate—and now anti-corruption—band Hatari performed at a protest rally at Austurvöllur connected to the scandal around the fishing company Samherji, who are accused of bribery in Namibia. Forgoing their normal vinyl gimp onesies, Hatari donned business suits to underline the uniform of corruption, which the band then endorsed onstage in a very sarcastic way. Hatari is no stranger to capitalism, as they currently operate a company called Svikamylla ehf., or the “Big Scam” in Icelandic, which tries to sell the livestock—i.e. us, the depressed consumers—useless stuff to fill our empty souls. It works. VG

Genki Instrument’s ‘Wave’ ring officially won the Icelandic Design Prize at the 2019 Iceland Design Awards. Created by Ólafur Bjarki Bogason, Daníel Grétarsson, Jón Helgi Hólmgeirsson, and Haraldur Hugosson, the ring is a wearable MIDI controller that allows artists to control sounds with a series of small tilts, pans, rolls, taps, and clicks. Of course, always being ahead of the curve, the Grapevine named Wave Product of the Year at the 2018 Reykjavík Grapevine Design Awards. “The way they have integrated design with the technological process is a good example of what design can do,” the Grapevine awards panel said. “They designed an experience.” IP