Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.02.2013, Blaðsíða 20

Together, Albert Finnbogason and Tumi Árna-
son don't only stroke the strings and blow the
reeds with The Heavy Experience, their self-
described “drone, spaghetti western and blues”
influenced rock band. Since the release of the
band's first LP—‘Slowscope’—earlier this year,
the two have also been operating their own la-
bel called Úsland, kicking off a series of online-
released, fully improvisational records. We got
in touch with Úslanders Albert and Tumi to find
out more about the label, which they call “a fully
sustainable platform driven by the willpower
alone.”
What made you want to start pro-
ducing and publishing recordings of
absolutely free improvisations?
We wanted to bring together musicians, to get
to know them and give them free rein to cre-
ate. As such music is occupying more and more
space in our private record collections, we were
interested in what Icelandic musicians are ca-
pable of when it comes to free improvisation.
Completely improvised music doesn't
have a strong standing in Iceland,
does it?
At least it's neither very visible nor accessible.
Improvisational concerts and performances
pop up every now and then, but usually they
are not documented and preserved. Improvisa-
tion mostly takes place behind closed doors of
rehearsal spaces. So, by purposefully bringing
together different artists, a certain interplay is
born, which otherwise would never have been
brought into existence. This can also break up
the typical band format that can function as a
hindrance to musical innovation.
You just bring musicians together
in the studio and give them a green
light to go?
Yes. The recording session takes place some-
times before a given weekend, some mini-
mum post-production takes place during that
very same weekend, and finally the record is
released online at the beginning of the next
week—costing as much or little as each person
wants to pay for it. Any profit goes into the fu-
ture production of ‘ÚÚ’ albums, which currently
are released on a monthly basis and will hope-
fully continue to be so.
Freedom seems to be one of the proj-
ect's key starting points. Does impro-
visation allow for more freedom than
pre-composed music?
No, you always have the same creative free-
dom. The threshold, however, is you yourself.
How easily and truly can you get your idea
out through the instrument? Are you capable
of forming the idea at once? Or do you need
to sit by and work on it for it to become true?
When you’re are inside a studio with nothing in
front of you—except a microphone and the tape
is rolling—there’s not much that can hold you
back other than yourself.
But must there not be a certain
artistic and even intrinsic difference
between music that is, on the one
hand, improvised from scratch, and
on the other hand, fully or partly pre-
composed?
Yes, there is a difference. A very strong foot-
hold can be found in composed and highly
practised music, something that is not evident
in improvisation and might consist of the musi-
cians' conviction or their harmonics and com-
positional experience. Or maybe not. In fact,
it's probably very individually different. There-
fore, it's interesting to explore how different
musicians tackle improvisation. When a group
of musicians come together with no common
goal other than to intertwine their music into
something functional, all communication be-
comes so careful and cautious. Everyone needs
to tiptoe and listening becomes the key factor.
- SNORRI PÁLL JÓNSSON ÚLFHILDARSON
Listening Becomes The Key Factor
Musician-run label Úsland kicks off a series of free improv records
ÚÚ For You
ÚÚ 1
Úsland has re-
leased four ÚÚ re-
cords. The first one,
‘ÚÚ 1,’ features two
of Iceland's most
prominent jazz
musicians—guitar-
ist Róbert Sturla
Reynisson and drummer Magnús Trygvason
Eliassen—who, together with Héðinn Finns-
son's hurdygurdycaster and Tumi Árnason's
saxophone—create a skyful of soundclouds
and rhythmic disorder, free from a slightest
attempt into any structural safe-haven.
ÚÚ 2
The second one,
‘ÚÚ 2’—performed
by multi-instrumen-
talists Arnljótur Sig-
urðsson, Indriði In-
gólfsson and Úlfur
Hansson—stands
further away from
music genres, although it does at times
resemble some of the most landscape-like
experiments of the West-German kraut-
rock of the late 1960's and early 1970's
ÚÚ 3
‘ÚÚ 3’ is entirely
acoustic, offer-
ing a four-track
fantasy of stroking,
plucking and buzz-
ing—and occasional
coughing—per-
formed by a classi-
cal string quintet comprised of Anna Sóley
Ásmundsdóttir, Bára Gísladóttir, Kristín Þóra
Haraldsdóttir, Pétur Eggertsson and Þórður
Hermannsson.
ÚÚ 4
Finally, the key
ingredients of ‘ÚÚ
4’ are the jazz-
originated, often
distorted horns
of Ragnhildur
Gunnarsdóttir and
Eiríkur Orri Ólafs-
son, smoothly blended with the advised
daily intake of Steingrímur Teague's noisy
keyboards and appropriate electronic
spices from the kitchen of Guðmundur
Vignir Karlsson aka Kippi Kaninus.
MUSIC
Step into
the Viking Age
Experience Viking-Age Reykja­vík a­t the
new Settlement Exhibition. The focus of the
exhibition is a­n exca­va­ted longhouse site which
da­tes from the 10th century ad. It includes
relics of huma­n ha­bita­tion from a­bout 871, the
oldest such site found in Icela­nd.

Multimedia­ techniques bring Reykja­vík’s
pa­st to life, providing visitors with insights
into how people lived in the Viking Age, a­nd
wha­t the Reykja­vík environment looked like
to the first settlers.
The exhibition a­nd
museum shop a­re open
da­ily 10–17
Aða­lstræti 16
101 Reykja­vík / Icela­nd
Phone +(354) 411 6370
www.reykja­vikmuseum.is
Alísa Kalyanova
INTER
VIEW
Úslanders Albert Finnbogason, left, and Tumi Árnason, right
Go get those free records at uslandrecords.bandcamp.com! 20The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 2 — 2013