Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.02.2011, Blaðsíða 23

23
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 2 — 2011
Music | CD Reviews
Music | End Of Days
by the time this goes to print, ha-
varí will be shut. Temporarily closed
while they seek a new locale, the in-
dependent record store/bookstore/
small venue/art gallery/recording
studio/coffee shop has been forced
to make way for a new downtown
hotel after seventeen months of
centrally located awesomeness.
Initially opened as an outlet store for
local record labels Kimi and Borgin,
Havarí gradually became all the above-
mentioned things as time progressed,
with the collective of artists/musicians
who ran it, keeping an open mind as
to the nature of the place. Word spread
and people rather started taking them
for granted, but their last month in busi-
ness saw a flurry of press attention as
everyone suddenly realised what was
being lost here. The Grapevine, spine-
less conformists that we are, jumped on
the bandwagon and hastily discussed
some sad facts with proprietors Svavar
Pétur Eysteinsson and Kristján Freyr
Halldórsson.
The coSieST waRehouSe in
Town
The general attitude now is that the
record store is a dying thing. was
havarí your way of trying to save the
record store?
Svavar: I have no particular aspirations
on behalf of The Album, in the physical
sense of the word. I don’t want to rescue
it; it’ll just go its own way. Maybe this is a
natural result of the fact that the record
store is dying, it has to adapt and evolve
into something else, something cultur-
ally and musically active. We’ve used this
space for various different things, we’ve
recorded albums in the basement. And
then, of course, Kimi Records came and
turned my studio into their warehouse.
But it’s a very cosy warehouse. The cosi-
est warehouse in town. I want it to be
like a downtown creative workspace.
So you do definitely think there is a
place for a creative workspace like
havarí in Reykjavík?
Svavar: Yes, especially if you do it care-
lessly enough… don’t take it too se-
riously, then people will like it more.
We were always ready to give it all up
tomorrow. We took things day-by-day,
week-by-week. If we don’t feel like do-
ing this tomorrow, we’ll just close. We
never made any kind of commitment…
but we love running this place, and we
will keep doing it.
pRoSTiTuTion and dRuGS
Kristján: I personally think it’s a crying
shame what’s happening, what with the
hotel and all. You would’ve thought that
with the Best Party in City Hall, this kind
of thing would change, but nothing has
happened. The only real progress be-
ing made, has been exactly this kind of
activity, the kind Svavar and his ilk have
been involved in the downtown area,
[vintage clothing store] Gyllti Kötturinn
and these design spaces, young people
trying to establish themselves. The fact
of the matter is, however, that places like
that [Kristján points across the street to
a vacant storefront that once housed a
Subway], the rent there costs 1.000.000
ISK a month. If you can’t sell teenagers
oblong pieces of bread, then what can
you do? Are we going to have to resort
to prostitution and drugs? I don’t want
to get political, but we need to think
about what kind of downtown Reykjavík
we want to have. Do we want hotels and
puffin shops [derogatory term for tourist
shops]...
Svavar:… that are designed accord-
ing to some imaginary concept of what
tourists need. You can’t imagine that all
tourists want to do is hang out in hotels
and collect puffin dolls.
ShiTTinG one’S collecTive
panTS (oR FailuRe To do So)
Kristján: It’s a degrading portrait of
tourists; I don’t think tourists are idiots.
Cultural tourism has grown a lot, and
Havarí is a direct response to that. Tour-
ists come here and piss themselves out
of happiness… they aren’t buying some
puffin… I mean, some of them do, but
not everybody who comes to Iceland
buys a puffin keychain and a picture of
Geysir. It is a fact that most tourists who
come to Iceland come for the culture:
music and other art. It’s sad that there is
no presentation of these things in down-
town Reykjavík. The only people who so
far haven’t shit their collective pants in
Iceland are the artists.
Svavar: When Iceland is advertised, or
attempts are made to improve our im-
age abroad, it’s the artists who get the
call. They’re asked to do pro bono work
to present Iceland as having a flourish-
ing culture, but the people in charge do
nothing to support these artists or give
them creative space. Sure, there is some
funding, but…
Kristján:…but in the end, city officials
have yet to formulate a policy regarding
these matters. It’s Reykjavík’s existential
crisis: what kind of downtown do we
want.
you don’t know what you’ve Got ‘Til it’s Temporarily
closed For Relocation after having To Make way For
a hotel lobby’
-Havarí interviewed, for posterity’s sake
SindRi eldon
höRðuR SveinSSon
Klassart’s blues-y country (or
is that country-style blues?
Who can tell?), seems to have
mistaken mellowness and intimacy for
boredom and a complete and total lack
of dynamism. Tiresome, plodding blues
guitar lines, with country melodies that
have shrivelled up from being out in
the sun for too long. Oh dear.
- bob cluneSS
The beginning of Lifun’s debut
album seems designed to bring
out feelings of despondency
with trite pop pap that’s as disposable
as last week’s newspapers. Improve-
ments occur, but while they can play
and sing nice melodies you get the
feeling that this group of musicians re-
ally isn’t stretching itself that much.
- bob cluneSS
<< klassart
lifun >>
Bréf frá París
Fögur fyrirheit
fridaklassart
The sound of slow death
lifungerirutfrakeflavik
Acoustic pop as mains hum ...
The good people of Havarí assure us that they will re-open
sometime this year. Phew.
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