After a worldwide tour for most of 2007 and 2008, the Volta tour ended yesterday night with a small acoustic show at Langholtskirkja in Iceland. The show was announced in a small article in the morning paper this past weekend and tickets went on sale Monday, quickly selling out all 300 seats for the final taste of the tour.
Iceland Review offered us this lovely review:
“The Communion of High Holy Björk
“I’ve been living in a tent for four days and thinking life can’t get any worse,” blared the American girl in line behind us—who, by the way, had visibly (and olfactorily) been living in a tent for four days. “And then this happened!” she blared. “I can’t believe we are here! I can’t believe we are actually here!”
Polish, German, French, Finnish, Tagalong—although I might not have been able to recognize it, I have a hunch this sentiment was echoed by other tourists up and down the extensive line snaking out the door of Langholtskirkja Church. Our Lady of Icelandic Music, Björk frikkin’ Gudmundsdóttir, was holding an exclusive 300-person concert in a small church in the burbs of Reykjavík. These travelers lucked out.
How often does Queen Elizabeth swing open the doors of Buckingham and sing a few ditties (in gold and pink sequin nonetheless)? How often does the Pope surprise Vatican City visitors with an impromptu session of his greatest hits (with a ten-piece all-girl brass band nonetheless)?
On a lazy Saturday morning over coffee and back episodes of Prison Break, Gísli was pouring over the paper and saw a tiny notice for a 300-seat “unplugged” concert on Tuesday… with Björk. But when you are the de facto potentate, empress and czarina of all things cool in Iceland, you don’t need much more than three days. Indeed, when the tickets went on sale at 10:00 am on Monday morning, most fans had commenced clicking by 10:00:01, and my sources tell me the concert was sold out well before 11:00. And at ISK 6,000 (USD 75, EUR 50), how can you pass up such a bargain.
But the ticket sales weren’t actually the reason for this concert. The entire performance was filmed and will be released as a DVD (so don’t feel bad if you weren’t along). But the fact that it was recorded means that there was very little “unplugged” about this session. In fact, the sanctuary was crawling with wires, cameramen, microphones and Mark Bell’s computer equipment. However, once Björk’s all-girl Icelandic brass band stepped on stage and began playing the haunting brass chorale overture from Selma Songs, all the wires and gadgetry seemed to disappear.
The set was just. There was an odd pipe organ arrangement of “Cover Me” as well as reworked versions of “Immature” and “Dull Flame of Desire.” The Langholtskirkja choir sang along for “Vökuró” (with an added harpsichord), “Who Is It” and “Submarine” (which blew everyone away with brass, organ, choir and Björk twitching, craning, bobbing and spinning like she does). Everyone was wowed when for her encore she took “It’s Oh So Quiet,” which hasn’t been heard for about a decade.
The show was worth every króna, every wire, every reeking tent-dweller, but the highlight of the show was definitely “Mouth’s Cradle,” a rather difficult song with erratic beats and complicated syncopation. Björk just couldn’t get it right and kept on losing her place in the song. The audience cringed and beatboy Mark Bell simply closed his eyes and attempted to send dispatches of good tempo to the woman at the front of the stage. At the end of the show she steps back on stage to take another whack at “Mouth’s Cradle” with the choir and brass and Bell. “We got mixed up, but you can do that with a DVD.” And they launched into the song again. Better, but still not quite right. Sometimes mistakes embarrass you. Sometimes they humble you. And sometimes mistakes transubstantiate the body and blood of an international music icon into a girl trying her best to do something really difficult. It was in the Langholtskirkja church in the outlying neighborhoods of Reykjavík that the divine became human.
Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation has sparked intense debate over whether Europe’s biggest area of unspoiled nature should be turned into an industrial park of aluminium smelters and hydro-electric plants. The area in question is the country of Iceland, where the government’s extensive plans to sell state land and exploit inexpensive clean hydro-electric power for the benefit of multinational aluminium interests is a stark local example of today’s global realities:
Who ultimately owns the rights to the world’s natural resources and land? the people? the government? the highest bidder?
An unconventional approach to such issues of development and the environment, Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation powerfully combines personal reflection and investigative exposé in a unique and fascinating look into the conflicted national psyche of contemporary Iceland. With sharp humour and keen insight, Andri Snær Magnason explores and challenges the traditional mindset currently shaping the country’s development–suggesting the possibility of an alternative vision and giving voice to a new generation that understands the power of ideas in both resisting and creating sustainable change.
Dreamland is a book about ideas. But Dreamland is not about ideology, nor about traditional politics. Dreamland is not a book about CO2 emissions. Dreamland does not tell you not to own a car. Dreamland does not tell you how to behave. But Dreamland A Self-help Manual for a Frightened Nation, will definitely make you think.
Smekkleysa artists, Dikta, will play a show tonight at Organ in Reykjavík.
They have just put up a new song called Just Getting Started on their myspace page. The song is on Smekkleysa, from their upcoming album. You can check it out at : http://www. myspace. com/dikta
Also, Dikta will be playing a coast to coast USA tour in the coming weeks.
Here are the confirmed dates so far:
Aug 11 2008 - West Hollywood, California @ The Viper Room
Aug 12 2008 - Glendale, California @ The Scene
Aug 15 2008 - Upland, California @ The Wire (All Ages Show)
Aug 17 2008 - Los Angeles, California @ Mr. T’s Bowl
Aug 18 2008 - West Hollywood, California @ The Viper Room
Aug 21 2008 - New York, New York @ Rehab
Aug 22 2008 - New York, New York @ Crash Mansion (Between A Rock and a Hard Place) Club Night
NEW YORK (June 27, 2008)—Nat Geo Music, the music division of National Geographic Entertainment, will Webcast an open-air Náttúra concert live from Iceland on Saturday, June 28, 2008. Two of the world’s most important and visionary musical entities, Björk and Sigur Rós, will headline the free concert.
The event will be available exclusively at worldmusic. nationalgeographic. com from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET (begins at 8 p.m. BST/London or 7 p.m. GMT/Reykjavik).
To be held in a large park near the centre of Reykjavik, all of the performances will be during daylight, with Iceland’s capital city and dramatic rolling scenery providing a perfect backdrop to what is expected to be one of the biggest concerts the country has seen. The Náttúra concert looks to raise awareness of the impact of the growing aluminum smelting activity on Iceland’s natural landscape.
One of Nat Geo Music’s main goals is to offer artists and experts who care about global culture and the environment an outlet to create awareness for important issues. Spotlighting these amazing artists performing live in a spectacular backdrop allows our worldwide audience to enjoy great music and become aware of Iceland’s environmental concerns and join the conversation,” said David Beal, president of National Geographic Entertainment.
Commenting on the gig, Björk said: “Too often battles being fought for nature turn into something negative and into mudslinging. We will not go that way, we are not saying that this and that is forbidden, we are rather asking ‘what about all these other possibilities?’ The 21st century is not going to be another oil century but rather a century where we need to recycle, think green and design both power plants and our surroundings in harmony with nature.
Sigur Rós, who released its fifth album, “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust,” this week, believes the issue of aluminum smelting in Iceland is one that can no longer be ignored. “We are not a political band and don’t think musicians should set themselves as spokespeople on anything at all, but sometimes you see things going on in your own back yard and find that just as a human being you cannot stand by and do nothing. The changes that are going on in Iceland need to be the subject of debate and not snuck through the back door because no one lives in the wilderness and there is urban apathy or a general lack of awareness,” said Sigur Rós vocalist Jón Thor Birgisson.
Nat Geo Music & Radio (NGMR) is a division of National Geographic Entertainment, established in 2007 to inspire people to care about the planet through the power of music. NGMR distributes and promotes its music offerings throughout all of National Geographic’s media platforms, including the National Geographic Channels worldwide, National Geographic Films, National Geographic Giant Screen Films and National Geographic Kids Entertainment, as well as its magazines and digital media divisions. In addition to its programming and music supervision responsibilities, NGMR oversees the production of projects and programs with some of today’s hottest artists who are actively involved in environmental and cultural issues.
Nationalgeographic.com is the award-winning Web site of the National Geographic Society and attracts 13 million unique visitors a month (source: Omniture).
Nationalgeographic. com combines National Geographic’s video, photography and maps with in-depth information and interactive features about animals and nature, destinations and cultures.
Nationalgeographic.com’s news service, National Geographic News, publishes daily stories about science and discoveries and produces electronic newsletters for more than 650,000 subscribers.
As we are all preparing for Náttúra this Saturday, we are thrilled that people seem interested and curious for more information about nature and the changes we are facing. This week, The Reykjavík Grapevine, a free English language magazine here in Iceland, have just come out with a new issue focusing on this very subject with tons of information and interviews to catch you up.
Sigur Rós will release their fifth LP “Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust” on June 23rd. We will have it available for you at the Smekkleysa webshop at http://www.smekkleysa.net and also at our shop on Laugavegur in Reykjavík. A live stream of this gorgeous new album is available now through the Sigur Rós MySpace page.
“Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust” was co-produced with the band by renowned producer flood, and was recorded in New York City (at Sear Sound Studios), London (at Assault and Battery Studios and Abbey Road), Reykjavík (at Álafoss, the band’s studio, as well as a church in Reykjavík), and Havana, Cuba.
The album title translates into english as “With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly.”
This is the first album in the band’s career to be made outside of Iceland. It is also their first album to feature vocalist Jónsi’s vocals in English on one track. In addition to the English, one of the album’s tracks is sung without lyrics and the rest of the tracks are sung in Icelandic.
We are all very excited for this album’s release. To pass the time until June 23rd, be sure to see the rest of the amazing Sigur Rós catalogue at our webshop!
We are happy to announce that our YouTube page is up and running.
Here you will find some of our favourite music videos and interviews by Smekkleysa artists past and present. Visit us at http://www.youtube.com/smekkleysasm and subscribe to our page so you can be notified of any new updates!
Steintryggur is embarking on a small tour of Iceland in middle May.
They will be promoting their new CD Trappa, which took 4 years to complete and was recorded in a variety of locations with performances by local virtuosos. Mixed and edited by Australian Ben Frost, the CD takes unexpected turns into the realms of the electro acoustic. Organic grooves and audio terror ensues.
Siggi recently gave us an interview where he talks about Steintryggur and the new album. We will now like to share this with you and give you a little insight into this amazing project.
The touring group consists of Steingrimur on tabla and various percussion, Sigtryggur on trap kit and Ben Frost on the mac and mix. Kippi Kaninus is also known to drop in and work his special form of jaw harp and overtone vocal in the mix. A good and hearty, arty farty party!
Here are the dates for the Icelandic tour, which begins tomorrow night:
Smekkleysa SM/Bad Taste SM, was established in Iceland in 1986, by a group of young artists and musicians, who had been active since the Icelandic punk explosion in the early eighties. Part of their world domination or death manifesto, was to create a pop band with The Sugarcubes which in turn became the backbone for Smekkleysa SMs activities over the next few years.
The company has since grown from being an experimental cultural organization into a fully active record company. It has developed and worked with some of Icelands most interesting artists, e.g. The Sugarcubes, Björk, Sigur Rós, múm, Mínus, Ghostigital, Curver, Ske, slowblow, Kimono and Jan Mayen.
Currently we operate on-line and have a distribution system set up for our releases world wide. And Iceland.
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