Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.10.2008, Page 4

THIS year’s Airwaves Borkó isn’t performed not only once, but twice. As we talk, he lights a cigarette and explains that he didn’t know about his multiple ap-
pearances, not exactly. It turns out that the whole prepara-
tion for a festival like this tends to be a bit fuzzy.
Many must wonder who is this mysterious Borkó is in
real life and when I ask Björn he doesn’t hesitate: “Well, he
is definitely me. But who am I? My name is Björn Kristjáns-
son and I am a working teacher in an elementary school, and
I like to make music. I think that sums is up.” Borkó used to
play all his instruments by himself but lately he has gathered
a posse around him that help him out by putting all the piec-
es together. “It was a bit hard to do everything on my own,” he
says, “and I think it’s always rewarding for a musician to get
other’s opinion on your stuff. So for me it’s a step forward.”
Hitherto he has solely composed all his music alone,
whether he is strumming his guitar at home or putting elec-
tro melodies together in his computer. But, as any great artist
knows, there’s something to be said for the editorial process
and he’s happy to let his friends give input. “I think that in
the future I’ll let them enter the songwriting process much
earlier than I’ve done before, these guys know me for what I
am and know how I like things.”
When I ask Björn why he makes his music he says that
he thinks he is just like any other musician trying to put his
thoughts out into the world; “Isn’t it all about doing that? If
you have an idea which you think is presentable and you want
to let people know what you’re thinking, composing music is
a great way of sharing it.”
Lately Borkó has been on a tour around Europe so po-
tential attendants to their show should expect a bulletproof
and well rehearsed set. “Before we went out to Europe we also
did this tour with our label Kimi, where all the bands signed
traveled around the country together.” Björn explains that he
really admires Baldvin Esra, the manager and owner of Kimi
Records becuase he isn’t a money grubbing scumbag but in
it for all the right reasons. “We have also established a great
bond between all the bands, but that mainly happened when
we spent several weeks together, and you might say that we’re
are kind of a family today. A music family.”
The future looks promising for Borko, their new album
has received marvelous feedback in Europe. Morr published
the European edition. Björn has a head full of ideas for the
next album and when they’ve finished traveling around per-
forming, he plans on taking some time off where he will ma-
terialize his ideas.
IT TURNED out to be more difficult than I thought to catch up with their extremely lively singer Arnór. As the current store-manager of the Naked Ape, which produc-
es all of the 700 official Airwaves t-shirts, he’s a very busy
man. On top of managing the store and performing, he’s also
making t-shirts for his band and several for the Mr.Destiny
crew, so you could say his hands are pretty full. “Isn’t this
how Icelanders do it? Everything’s rigged in the last minute?”
he says.
The band members knew each other a bit before they started the group, they all study at F.Í.H., which is the only jazz school in Iceland. But, none of them were actually
friends before they established Agent Fresco “It all started
with an email from the bassist where he invited me to join the
f lock,” Arnór explains. With that email, they plunged into
preparation for the Battle of the Bands. Armed with a three
song EP they ended up winning the competition. “Afterwards
we knew we were tremendously lucky that we all connect, that
doesn’t happen very often, if you put together a pack of ran-
dom guys then it’s more likely that they don’t add up at all.”
He says it’s tough to actually describe what Agent Fres-co is all about, but their sound is definitely intense, at least when performed live. Their music boasts lot of melodies
and they have the whole polyrhythmic going on. “We have
of course some jazz influences for all of us study jazz, but I
hate saying it because when you say you have jazz and funk
influences people tend to think of porno-ish funk guitars and
such, which is definitely not true in our case.” Arnór studied
classical singing for a long time but recently switched to jazz
and rock. “We can also be quite heavy, almost hardcore, so
you could say we cover the whole spectrum.”
Lately Agent Fresco have been recording their EP and are hoping that they’ll be able to release it in a month. The album was recorded by the band themselves, mixed, mastered and
they are going to publish it themselves. The only thing not
being made by them is the artwork, which was made by a
good friend of Arnór from Denmark. “We wanted to find out
how far we could go without having anyone doing anything
for us, and so far it has worked out fine.” Even so, they have
spoken to Kimi Records concerning the future and Arnór is
optimistic that they could do excellent things together.
Agent Fresco have played almost every day over the last couple of weeks. Arnór say’s that’s how they’ve been rehears-ing for Airwaves which is more rewarding than jerkin’ off the
same old tunes in a garage over and over again. “If you come
to our show you can expect a really energetic and dynamic
show, so please do check us out.” Finally, Arnór expresses
how ecstatic he about being a part of the Iceland Airwaves
and how great the atmosphere is, “it’s wonderful how all the
bands in Iceland seem to be in harmony and nobody has a
grudge against one another, but I guess it’s because nobody’s
in it for the money, simply because there is no money. And if
you’re in it for the fun, why shouldn’t you have some laughs
while you’re at it?”
borKo
a performing educator
prolong their triumph
WordS BY siGuRðuR KJARTAn KRisTinsson
photographY GAs
WordS BY siGuRðuR KJARTAn KRisTinsson
photographY GAs
BjöRN KRISTjáNSSON IS THE HEAD OF THE ELEC-
TRO PROjECT KNOWN AS BORKó, WHICH IS ALSO
BjöRN’S OWN ALTER EGO. BORKó HAS TRIED HIS
LuCK AT vARIOuS TYPES OF PROjECTS INCLuD-
ING COMPOSING SCORES FOR BOTH FILM AND
THEATRE. HE ALSO PuBLISHED HIS DEBuT TREES
AND LIMBOS EP EARLY IN 2001. HIS DELICATE
ELECTRONIC TExTuRES HAvE FASCINATED MANY
BuT HE IS vERY THOROuGH AND SELECTIvE. HE
SPENT SIx YEARS WORKING ON HIS FIRST FuLL-
LENGTH, CELEBRATING LIFE, WHICH KIMI RECORDS
PuBLISHED THIS YEAR. HIS FOLLOW uP HAS BEEN
ExTENSIvE AND THERE ARE FEW ICELANDERS THAT
DON’T RECOGNISE HIS SOMEWHAT SINGuLAR
APPEARANCE.
THE uP N’ COMERS AGENT FRESCO HAvE RAPIDLY
CREATED A REPuTATION AS A vIGOROuS BAND
WITHIN THE ICELANDIC MuSIC INDuSTRY.
inter
vieWs
sun
DaY
AGEnT
FREsCo