As this article goes to print, dozens of Scandinavian bands are converging on Reykjavik, Iceland for the seventh annual Iceland Airwaves Festival, one of the most important events in the region’s musical calendar. While fellow Canadians Islands and Wolf Parade performed alongside Brits, Americans and other Scandinavians at last year’s festival, one bustling music scene dominated the show — the hometown crowd. This scene, which partners Iceland with the tiny, autonomous Faroe Islands, has been churning out bands at an astounding rate. Like Calgarians, the winter keeps Icelanders and Faroese inside for half the year. All this time holed up in basements and garages making music has created and maintained a dynamic music scene. While Bjork, Gus Gus and Sigur Ros dominate the press when it comes to Iceland’s music scene these three acts are only a fraction of the tip of the iceberg. Plus, the Faroe Islands, a place most people have never heard of, has an impressively thriving music scene to their credit despite boasting only 48,000 or so inhabitants. Teitur, a solo artist who has toured Canada a few times, hails from the country, but again, he is only one of many acts making great music in the Faroes.
Each country stages award ceremonies to award local talent with grants and acclaim, along the lines of the Polaris Prize or the Junos, and the winners are well worth seeking out. Starting in Iceland, where the awards are descriptively titled the Icelandic Music Awards, Reykjavik-based songwriter Petur Ben and former Gus Gus singer Hafdis Huld took home top honours this year. Ben is an eccentric songsmith crafting a melodic brand of anti-folk stuffed with enough rhythmic balls to conjure up both Tom Waits and Ryan Adams simultaneously. His music twists and turns through dark alleys of brooding, acoustic guitar, sparse, dusty percussion and western swing, creating a sound as far away from the ethereal, haunting moods of Sigur Ros or Bjork as possible. This is urgent, emotional stuff — music to be enjoyed with a stiff drink and a good cigar — and his brilliant debut, Wine for my Weakness, is as good as it gets. By employing subtle horn arrangements, virulent strings and plaintive chord progressions, Wine for my Weakness creates a mood as haunting as any Bjork song while treading through completely separate territory.
Hafdis Huld, on the other hand, is much more whimsical than Ben, utilizing the Icelandic music stereotype to a certain extent in her gorgeous debut, Dirty Paper Cup. Huld embraces found sounds, sweet melodies and banjo interplay to tell her stories, creating an esoteric feast of odd accompaniments, weird lyrics and saccharine vocals. Huld’s voice could lubricate a squeaky hinge, and coupled with some of the more interesting chord progressions at work in the pop world, she has created an expansive set of cuddly pop akin to The Bicycles, Feist and Rebekah Higgs. Much of the cloudy whimsy that Sigur Ros employs dots the record, but this is a more directed, cemented pop affair, as Huld’s feet are nestled firmly on the ground even if her mind is up in the clouds.
As for the Faroe Islands, the country’s two Atlantic Music Prize-winning acts here live in the same village — Gota, population 1,000 — but come from opposite ends of the musical spectrum. Boys in a Band emerged completely out of the blue last year, and, without an album or significant international recognition, won the event with their angular, clangy garage rock. Borrowing a lot from The Strokes and The Cribs, the quartet craft urgent, pensive pop melodies with forceful bass lines, loud drum lines and melodic guitar parts. It’s frighteningly good, despite sounding a lot like everything else. The key that sets these lads apart is that they play much of the same better than much of the rest.
Lastly, there is Eivor, a household name in the Faroe Islands, Ireland and the rest of the Celtic world. Through three albums, Eivor has crafted an Irish-influenced sound akin to The Chieftains or Enya, but in a more contemporary manner that casts aside the New Age idiom for more modern pop pastures. Plus, the woman can sing beautifully and is sure to find fans looking for a good kitchen party of music to drink to. She took home the Atlantic Music Prize for best female performer award, and her new album is one of the Faroe Islands’ bestselling musical releases of all time.
For the adventurous listener, sometimes it is best to look for music in those places on the periphery. Places lurking outside the norm can offer surprising delights, and very few places lie more on the global geographical periphery than Iceland and the Faroes.
