Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.10.2010, Blaðsíða 34

20
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2010
Music | Electronic films | RIFF
'The four Times'
We checked out this year's
Golden Puffin Award win-
ner
For more info on RIFF check out Grapevine’s online RIFF diary
http://www.grapevine.is/art/films.
It is in every film critic's unwritten code of honour
not to give away the entire movie in their review. I
unfortunately have to break this golden rule to ex-
plain why the jury made the right decision. But I'm
fair and am giving you a warning: If you are plan-
ning on seeing this movie, stop reading right now,
read this article later!!! SPOILER ALERT! All right,
that should do. If you’re still with me, I’ll tell you
about this extraordinary film, 'The Four Times',
from Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino.
One – The Old Shepherd And His Goats
This very quiet and slow film starts by describing
the everyday life of an elderly shepherd and his
goats. Without using any dialogue, the film follows
the old man driving his animals up the mountain
to graze in the morning and back to the stall in
the afternoons. The old man is suffering from a
bad cough, which he tries to cure by drinking wa-
ter mixed with blessed dust from the local church.
Well, and then he dies. These first thirty minutes
are nice to watch, but the story is not that unusual—
so far.
Two – A Baby Goat Gets Lost In The Woods
After the shepherd dies, the film performs a sur-
prising change of protagonist. The goats, formally
serving more as a background setting for the story
of the shepherd, are now the focus. The goats are
staged to appear almost human. One little baby
goat leaves the herd and gets lost in the woods. And
then...
Three - A Tree Comes To Town
… the woods, and especially one tree which was ear-
lier just the setting for the story of the baby goat,
becomes the focus. Amazing. Then...
Four - Coal
… the tree becomes coal, and the coal becomes the
next protagonist of the film.
In addition to this incredible shifting of protago-
nists, the film presents the circle of life in a very
special way. In many sequences the camera follows
the goats or the shepherd's dog and the rhythm is
determined by the animal's movements. In the dif-
ferent stages the film uses repeating frames: the vil-
lage is shot from the same point of view for exam-
ple, but one time you see the shepherd on his way
to church, another time the goats strutting through
the alleys or the coal being delivered.
The story isn't told from a human point of view,
the observer is further away—is it maybe God?
From this distant perspective, what people say is
unimportant, the few words you actually hear in
this dialogue-less film sound like the baaahs of
goats, the wind through the leaves, and the crack-
ling sound of burning coal. 'The Four Times' is a
slow and quiet film that surprises you almost more
than you can bear. Extraordinary!
Cameron Bailey, co-director of Toronto Inter-
national Film Festival, Valdís Óskarsdóttir, noted
Icelandic director and editor, and Film Comment's
Managing Editor, Laura Kern, formed the jury for
the Golden Puffin Award. They chose this film out
of twelve remarkable debut or second films present-
ed in the main category New Visions. FIPRESCI,
the International Federation of Film Critics, came
to the same decision and honoured 'The Four
Times' with a second award.
- Wiebke Wolter
Words
Þórður Ingi Jónsson
The Icelandic Electronic Odyssey
On musical segregation and dreamachines
It's been a good summer for electronic music in
Iceland. At least three interconnected electronica
collectives have been wreaking havoc in Reykja-
vík's music venues: Electric Ethics, Extreme Chill
and Hljóðaklettar. These three superpowers, in col-
laboration with the Icelandic Airwaves festival, will
join forces on October 12th and 13th to serve up an
“exciting feast of music and visual effects” at Fak-
torý Bar in 101 Reykjavík. And this is a good thing.
duST IN THE SPIRAL STAIRS
The show on October 12 is an off-venue one with
a slender entrance fee of only 1500 ISK. The line-
up: experimental Danish quintet Selvhenter, Rúnar
Magnússon with Graupan & the Crying Cowboy,
the ever-esoteric Inferno 5, experimental stalwarts
Stilluppsteypa, your favourite DJ (DJ Musician) and
the aural terror of Gjöll. Visual/sound artist Finn-
bogi Pétursson will also team up with his son Stefán
Finnbogason of techno outfit Sykur due to “foster-
age-related reasons, for both individuals” (as they
put it). October 13 is an Airwaves-exclusive show
where the following acts will perform: lo-fi band
Peter and Wolf, electronic new-comer Arnljótur (of
Grapevine Grassroots infamy), super-duo Vindva
Mei, Selvhenter, father and son duo Stereo Hypno-
sis, industrialists Reptilicus, the psych-italo-disco
stylings of Evil Madness and the mustachio'd Hunk
of a Man.
But who exactly are these purveyors of elec-
tronic music? Promoter Ólafur Þórsson and musi-
cian Pan Thorarensen founded Electric Ethics in
2007 in the purpose of stirring up the local elec-
tronica scene. In that year they revived the “brute-
art band”, Inferno 5, and have held a few music
nights since that have combined Extreme Chill and
Hljóðaklettar.
Extreme Chill was founded by Pan Thorarensen
and his father Óskar Thorarensen (the two form
Stereo Hypnosis) in 2007 (they were subsequently
joined by promoter/DJ Andri Már Arnlaugsson).
They've organised many music nights in Reykjavík
for the past few years as well as the “Extreme Chill
Festival” which was held this summer in Hellissan-
dur.
The record label Hljóðaklettar (“Sound Cliffs”)
was founded last year by Rúnar Magnússon and
Sabrina Joy. It's based in New York, Copenhagen
and Reykjavík. The idea of Hljóðaklettar is to re-
lease limited edition albums bearing original art-
work. The first release, ‘Options’ was released on
an USB drive and the second, ‘Hljóðaklettar Dress
Up’ was a compilation tape that came with a sports
jacket. They've also held events, some of which in-
cluded “dreamachines” a la Brion Gysin and William
Burroughs.
“We, as experimental groups, promoters, labels
and artists are driven by the basic instinct of cre-
ating releasing music and promoting electronica
both here and overseas,” Electric Ethics stalwart
Ólafur Þórsson tells me. “Electronica in Iceland is
undoubtedly a kind of follow-up to the scene over-
seas and it's our wish that this will change, and we
are giving it our very best.
When asked what kind of music they promoted,
the answers got slightly more vague: “It's said that
electronica started with avant-garde artists in East-
ern-Europe in the beginning of the 20th century.
Ambient might be referred to as “dust on blades on
grass” or “dust in the spiral stairs” whereas punk is
noise. Electronica has the ability to be harsh and
experimental and on the other hand as smooth as
the summer wind.”
IN THE BEGINNING
The scene has been evolving since the dawn of punk
in Iceland, which—like everything else—came later
than in other countries. In the early '80s, Finnbogi
Pétursson was a part of the notorious art collective
Bruni BB that received attention from the police for
decapitating chickens on stage. The performance
was filmed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson and used in his
legendary documentary ‘Rokk í Reykjavík’.
“Each time a new genre or trend rears its head,
it's only an echo of an older genre, but in mutated
form of course,” Finnbogi answers when asked
if the power of the punk mentality still echoes
through the times. “Punk had perhaps a more pow-
erful charm because of all the dreck that came be-
fore, so it definitely echoes still.”
“The Bruni BB scene [from ‘Rokk í Reykjavík’]
had an immensely good influence on me. I man-
aged to borrow a very bad copy that thankfully in-
cluded that scene, because that scene was some-
times cut. That scene was the reason I wanted to
see the film,” explains Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson,
member of Stilluppsteypa and Evil Madness, prov-
ing that the chicken-decapitations resulted in more
than just legal problems. “Maybe I didn't realise at
the time, but in retrospect, that was what turned me
on to what I'm doing now in music and performance
art.”
A very similar troupe of musicians working with
performance art emerged in the '90s called Tilrau-
naeldhúsið (The Kitchen Motors Family). Composer
Jóhann Jóhannson [of Apparat Organ Quartet and
solo fame] explains: “Kitchen Motors Family was a
group of artists, who were seemingly very differ-
ent but shared considerable common ground that
remained unexplored. We were three musicians
with different backgrounds but we still had a core
of things in common. We wanted to create a forum
where these different artists could meet, work and
collaborate.
We were occasionally a record label, and we
produced and promoted. More often we were in-
stigating, setting things in motion, then stepping
back and learning from what happens. Now we're
working on bringing together all the documentation
of our work for these 10 years and putting together
a book and CD box set. Kitchen Motors sparked
many good things in the Icelandic music scene, like
Apparat Organ Quartet. For example we did a pro-
duction of a chamber opera in a small cafe-venue
with a mezzo-soprano and actor and an electronic
group that we did with múm, Sjón and Ásgerður
Júníusdóttir. We also produced a musical with an
author, a punk songwriter and an avant-garde the-
atre group in one month with virtually no budget.
The idea was to shake things up a bit.”
In the last years, there hasn't really been a par-
allel to these two groups. We asked industrial duo
Reptilicus what they think is going on in the local
scene at the moment: “One of the disappointments
today is the musical segregation. People that lis-
ten to this don't listen to that, and so on: the sheep
mentality. We've always felt that commitment in this
respect is complacent. That's why we've always
mixed genres, ready to embrace contradiction.
This has caused occasional confusion amongst
our marketing strategists and listeners. What we
enjoy most about Icelandic electronica today is the
strong element of experimentation. Also, there are
interesting contacts across generations of musi-
cians, exemplified by acts like Stereo Hypnosis and
Ghostigital. There's definitely something brewing in
the crucible of Icelandic electronica, and the light-
weight numbness of the “krútt” generation seems
less dominating and hopefully fading away.”
Bringing it All Back Home
These two concerts in October are the first con-
certs in the eleven-year history of Iceland Airwaves
concentrating solely on electronic music. This will
undoubtedly make a few people happy since there
has been so little focus on electronica. It fell into the
shadow of the guitar and the bass. These concerts
are the best introduction to this unique scene. So
show up, have a beer and enjoy the sounds. You
know we're going to.
“Each time a new genre or trend rears its head, it's only an echo
of an older genre, but in mutated form of course”