Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.06.2011, Blaðsíða 25

25
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 7 — 2011

Music | Tango
Most people’s idea of tango mu-
sic evokes a night-time display of
poise and passion in a small cafe
in the backstreets of Buenos Aires.
But what you may not know is that
through travelling musicians, the
dance and its music reached Fin-
land in the 1920s and ‘30s. From
there it became so popular that
Finnish tango music has become an
established variation of the genre
in its own right, with often melan-
cholic compositions expressing
themes of love, loss and Finns long-
ing for a distant homeland.
Now a group of Icelandic musicians
called Fimm í tango (Five In Tango)
seek to transpose Finnish tango
music to Iceland to create an Ice-
landic variation on the sound. The
Grapevine sat down with their cel-
list Kristin Lárusdóttir.
How did you first come into contact
with Finnish Tango music?
I lived in Finland for five years where I
was studying music. While I was there
I got to know and learn about Finnish
tradition and cultures, and Tango music
especially.
It’s a big thing in Finland?
You just can’t avoid hearing tango mu-
sic in Finland because it’s such as part
of the musical culture. I think you need
to have a feeling of the Finnish nation
and after a while it was something that
grew to become a natural to me.
When I moved back to Iceland, I
started missing Finland and its music.
I was working in the opera with [opera
singer] Ágúst Ólafsson, who had also
lived in Finland and had gotten ac-
quainted with Finnish tango music as
well. It was then that I got the idea of
putting together a group to play tango
music. It was like a calling, I somehow
knew we should be doing Finnish tango
together.
So you started the group then?
Yes. It was spring of 2007 when we
started putting this together. I talked
to Ágúst and my friend Íris, who was
studying in Germany and was play-
ing violin in a tango band there... it all
came together rather naturally. I then
got Tatu Kantomaa, a Finnish accor-
dion player who was living in Iceland,
to play with us. Finally I managed to get
hold of Ástríður Alda Sigurðardóttir for
the piano. She’s one of the best piano
players around. However Tatu moved
back to Finland so we now have a new
accordionist, Vadim Fyodorov, who is
from St. Petersburg in Russia and is a
very clever accordionist.
When you made your debut album,
you collaborated with a diverse
group of composers such as Haral-
dur Vignir Sveinbjörnsson and jazz
composer Hafdís Bjarnadóttir. Was
it difficult getting these people on
board?
At first we spoke to Haraldur Vignir and
he worked with Tatu on arrangements
of traditional Finish tango compositions
for us, but then he also brought a piece
of music especially composed for us
and it started from there. In the end, it
was easy to get Haraldur and Hafdís in-
volved and they composed most of the
tracks on the album for us.
Is there something that you could
say is inherently Icelandic in these
new compositions?
It’s hard to say. I know that Haraldur
has composed tangos before, and both
he and Hafdís are inspired by the Finn-
ish style. But it’s still early days.
How do you feel that the public re-
action to your music has been?
The audiences have really loved it. After
our release show at the Cultural House,
we even got an email from a fan thank-
ing us for an unforgettable concert and
for such a special experience. That was
unexpected. They seem really into it.
Some tango music has already
been made in Iceland, but not a lot of
it. There have been some groups that
have played Argentinean tango, among
other forms of tango, but very few
groups have specialised just in tangos
and played it regularly. Some of them
have already quit playing or have taken
a long break.
But I feel there is a desire for tango
in Iceland. For example there are two
dance groups in Reykjavík and one in
Akureyri.
So what are your plans for Fimm í
tango over the coming year?
Well our album is now available at the
Eymundsson bookshops as well as
at our website. We do plan to make
it available online in the near future
through sites like gogoyoko. As for
playing concerts, we have a concert
scheduled at Cafe Rósenberg in June.
But what we hope to do is to get
some support to put together a tango
festival that would be held in Septem-
ber, to promote the music in Iceland.
We’d be looking to bring artists and
bands from Finland as well as promot-
ing tango music and artists from Ice-
land. My hope is that we can make more
out of the tango music groups that al-
ready exist, add to them and maybe we
can develop some kind of very special
Icelandic tango. Who knows if the Ice-
landic tango could become rich part of
the Icelandic culture, like it is in Finnish
culture.
Go dance the group to their thang at Café Rosenberg
on June 28 and at a 'barn dance' in Stokkalækur (www.
stokkalaekur.is) on July 1.
It Takes Five To Tango. Ehrm
Icelandic tango group Fimm í tangó brings some passion to the dance f loor
“I feel there is a desire
for tango in Iceland.
For example there are
two dance groups in
Reykjavík and one in
Akureyri”
BOB CLUNESS