Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.04.2008, Síða 15

Borko is the recording pseusdonym of Björn Kristjánsson, a music
teacher who is also a member of the band Skakkamanage. Formerly,
Borko was exclusively an electro musician, but on this album he
strikes another tone. Borko’s music is a sentimental mix of electro-
accoustica, delivered with the help of friends from múm and Hjaltalín
among others. There are many instruments at play here and Borko’s
songwriting shows a certain flair for crescendos. The arrangements
are low-key but regularly erupt. Some songs are instrumental, and I
happen to like those songs more: singing is not necessarily Borko’s
strongest skill, but also, the arrangements are such that the singing
often adds little to the song. I suspect there will be a large audience
for this album. Myself, I am torn between liking it and not liking it. I
enjoy the warm character and the friendly atmosphere of the album,
but I wish it carried a little more punch. SBB
Áfram Ísland! (Go Iceland!) is the second album from the punk
threepiece that sprang from Dáðadrengir, a rock/rap band that won
the Icelandic version of the battle of the bands a few years back.
Morðingjarnir are true to their roots, and play punk to serve the mass-
es. Nothing too complicated, just stuff that makes you want to scream
and headbutt someone. More than anything, they evoke memories of
the Icelandic cult favorites Innvortis, although international listeners
might prefer the tag So-Cal to put them in their respective category. It
might be fitting, it is just not as relevant. 14 songs in all, Áfram Ísland!
runs smoothly and makes for one of the most positive listening expe-
riences of the year. SBB
Hellvar draws its name from a of husband-wife duo Heiða and Elvar,
who formed the band as a folk duo some four years ago but have
now added two new members and become an electro-rock band. It
is a hit and miss effort. The album tops early, there is a great instru-
mental song called Insomnia and the album’s best song, 11 Types,
follows. Give me Gold is another song that helps the effort, but on
the whole, the electro – rock mix fails to produce a very exciting
record. There is a lot of things to like, almost every song has ele-
ments that sound exciting, but the complete product still falls short
of being exciting. SBB
Áfram Ísland!
Morðingjarnir
The Windows of Brimnes
Bill Holm
Bar Out of Hellvar
Hellvar
Celebrating Life
Borko
BOOKCD CD
CD
In 1998, Minnesotan writer and teacher Bill Holm bought himself a
house called Brimnes in Hofsós, a small village in northern Iceland.
He began to spend his summer vacations there, playing the piano,
writing, watching the mountains on the other side of Skagafjörður,
entertaining visitors and getting to know his neighbours and his
own Icelandic roots. Already the author of several books of essays
and poetry, Holm has now, for the first time, written a book about
Iceland.
The Windows of Brimnes is a well-packed lunch box of essays;
compact and focused. There are ten chapters, which can all be read
independently. The first four cover Hofsós, Skagafjörður, Icelandic
birds, and Icelandic folktales. Then Holm shifts his gaze towards
America, with an essay about Icelandic immigrants and his own
family history, another about his youth and young adulthood in the
shadow of the Vietnam War, and a third about the question of how
much choice we have in deciding who and what we listen and pay
attention to. The three concluding essays discuss Icelandic Christi-
anity (both in Iceland and North America), Icelandic poetry, and
finally Icelandic (and American) politics.
Holm sees untapped value in small communities, whose
neighbourliness fascinates and comforts him. His 1996 book The
Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth argues that one can lead
a full and satisfying life in Minneota, Minnesota (population 1500),
his home town. Windows of Brimnes is an ode to the way of life
in Hofsós and Skagafjörður. Holm has little appetite for Reykjavík,
which, he regrets, “is now a real city.”
Just when the reader is ready to dismiss Holm as hopelessly
in the grip of what Jim Rice has called the Iceland-is-wonderful dis-
course, comes the book’s last essay, “Fog.” In it, Holm recognises
that he has presented an image of Iceland slathered in “whipped
cream and jam.” He proposes that Icelandic “idealism, intelligence,
and humour” is also mixed with “venality, foolishness, and greed.”
He especially criticises aluminium processing and the dam at
Kárahnjúkar, which he says amount to the deflowering of the Icelan-
dic landscape.
Regardless of one’s stance towards smelters and dams, this
is a welcome recognition that life in Iceland is not just a midsum-
mer idyll. There is another Iceland where trout are raised in pens,
not fished from lakes and streams; few people write, and fewer still
farm; and daily life is, like elsewhere, burdened by political and
moral uncertainty and dispute.
Key to Holm’s love of Iceland is that it is his refuge from the
disturbances of the American soul. Holm is a free-thinking Christian
rather than a fundamentalist, a truth-teller rather than a dissembler,
an observer rather than a war-maker, and someone who questions
what he is told to believe. In Iceland, society shares his values, or
at least more so than in America. Hofsós is a safe perch where he
looks back towards America, explaining that there is another way,
and that he has made it reality for himself.
But I suspect that there are a lot of readers who will like Holm’s
sweeter, creamier take, and that Windows of Brimnes will do well.
I had a good time reading it, and recommend it as one of the better
Iceland books on the market, a concise and readable record of an
American’s attachment to the North Atlantic.
By Ian Watson
American indie-folk artist Sam Amidon is a member of the Valgeir Sig-
urðsson’s Bedroom Community label, which is usually a benchmark
for quality. On this album, Amidon, who is the son of profesional folk
musicians in Vermont, takes on old folk songs and delivers his own
version with the help of Nico Muhly, a New York-based composer re-
sponsible for string arrangements, and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson.
The result is an eerily wailful and wistful recording, filled with sorrow
and sincerity. Amidon’s voice is full of sombre feelings and melan-
choly, which fits this collection of songs perfectly. Although this is not
the type of music that fits every occasion, it is another fine product
from the Bedroom Community. SBB
All is WELL
Sam Amidon
CD
Reviews | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 04 2008 | 15
EDDAS AND SAGAS
Iceland’s national treasures
The Culture House - Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfi sgata 15, 101 Reykjavik
Tel.: +354 545 1400, www.thjodmenning.is
Open daily between 11am and 5pm
The admission fee grants entry to all exhibitions at the Culture House. Adults ISK 300. Senior citizens ISK 200.
Students ISK 200. Free entry for children 16 years of age or younger. Admission is free on Wednesdays.
An open guided tour of the Manuscripts exhibition is offered every weekday except Wednesdays at 3:30 pm.
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – EDDAS AND SAGAS. EXHIBITION AT THE CULTURE HOUSE.