Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.09.2015, Blaðsíða 52

Sunday - Wednesday: 11.30 - 18.00 / Thursday- Saturday: 11.30 - 23.30
Grandagarður 2 - 101 Reykjavík - tel: +354 571 8877 - www.maturogdrykkur.is
We take the goo
d old tradition
al
recipes and the
best icelandic

ingredients to
create fun and
tasty food.
Let tradition s
urprise you!
Moooh..!
Baaah..!
...!
Hey Borgar! What’s your story?
I’m a musician: my background is in
classical music. I play double bass, I’ve
played with symphony orchestras and
have taught at music school. For the past
decade, I’ve worked with every musical
style except jazz. I have a close association
with the Bedroom Community, a boutique
music label run out of Breiðholt by Valgeir
Sigurðsson, Ben Frost and Nico Muhly.
Mainly, I’m just an independent music
maker, beating the tin drum out of frus-
tration. My mission is basically to try and
exert a positive influence on the society I
live in.
And what’s the story behind The
Tin Drum series?
The story behind The Tin Drum, the ma-
chine... I was working with a few Icelandic
musicians, discussing the state of cultural
politics in Iceland, and the lack of venues
for independent artists in the music scene
to perform. I found that there is a far too
common belief among local independent
artists that Harpa is simply not available,
because it is too expensive. So I just went
to Harpa’s directors, and asked if they
were open to having a discussion about it,
if we could find an angle where we could
solve that problem.
There’s got to be
a better way!
To make Harpa financially available
to smaller artists?
To make it financially viable to have a
well-produced concert series in Harpa
that showcased the best of the Icelandic
music scene. And we found a way to do it;
it turned out to be rather easy.
There’s not a lot of info available on
the conert series in English. Could
you tell us more about what it is
and entails?
We’re just starting out, we don’t have
backing yet; we’re producing this indepen-
dently, for the independent scene. We’re
basically working by our own method.
So, the Tin Drum: we’re starting out with
nine monthly concerts, with the aim of
showcasing the best of the Icelandic mu-
sic scene’s independent artists. Our main
concern is the quality of the music, rather
than the artists’ particular style.
As they say, there are really only two
kinds of music: good music and bad music.
And who’s involved so far?
We’ve mapped out the first four editions,
until the end of the year. Valdimar was the
first one, for September. October is go-
ing to feature Úlfur Eldjárn, November is
sóley, and Sin Fang is going to perform in
December. Beyond that—we’re basically
starting out in this manner, and I need to
prove a lot of people that this is possible.
I need to prove to a lot of people that we
don’t need to take only artists that have a
really wide audience. I need to prove that
this is viable, and that’s the goal for the
rest of this year. We aim at announcing the
schedule for the rest of the season at the
end of this year.
A counter to festival fever
How did the first concert go?
We had a full house, and there wasn’t a dry
eye in the house after Valdimar’s presen-
tation. It went really well! We got Harpa’s
catering service, and they put a restaurant
in front of the hall overlooking the har-
bour before and after the concert. Every-
body sort of worked together.
So Harpa is really on board with the
Tin Drum?
They’re totally on board. They’re really
nice, they’re really good to work with. We
will be staging shows by the best of the Ice-
landic music scene on the first Wednesday
of every month—so keep your eyes peeled.
Why Harpa, exactly? It’s mostly
known for classical music, right?
The house was built under very strange
circumstances. Halfway through the con-
struction process, we realised we didn’t
have any money. There was that economic
collapse and all. Anyway, it’s a new house,
and its purpose is slowly being developed.
With the Tin Drum, we’re trying to find a
new angle, to bring music into one of Reyk-
javík’s only purpose-built concert halls in
Reykjavik. Now, Harpa is obviously home
to Iceland’s Symphony Orchestra, which
is great, but I think in Iceland our cultural
life is very much based around festivals,
with Mengi being one of the few excep-
tions. So, The Tin Drum acts like a counter
to this, a year-round concert series, rather
than a concentrated festival type thing.
The music scene serves as Reykjavík’s
face to much of the outside world. With
this series, we’re basically trying to create
a venue for new artists to do what they do,
showing a new face.
Why call it The Tin Drum?
The Tin Drum is a book about a man, a boy
who hits the drum when he gets frustrat-
ed. He beats the drum to wake up the mid-
dle classes from their sleep. That’s kind of
what we’re doing. Also, it’s a cool name.
So you’re waking people up to
Harpa, hoping that others will pick
up the beat?
Yeah! There’s not a lot of catering to tour-
ists years-round, and not a lot of opportu-
nities for independent artists to gain expo-
sure. We want to fix that.
The Tin Drum is an ongoing concert
series at Harpa, showcasing great Ice-
landic music on the first Wednesday of
every month. The next editon is on Oc-
tober 7, featuring Úlfur Eldjárn (with
Sóley heading November’s show, and
Sin Fang in the December slot). For
more info, keep your eye on our list-
ings mag and website (www.listings.
grapevine.is—hey, why not try our
fancy “Appening” app?) and Harpa’s
website (www.harpa.is).
Earlier this month, a new concert series premiered at Harpa, with artists Valdimar and Örn
Eldjárn performing some of their best songs. The monthly series, Blikktromman (“The Tin
Drum”), has scheduled a broad selection of Iceland’s top musicians, playing their tin drums
for all the world to hear. But who are these people? What exactly are they doing? And why are
they doing it? We sat down with organiser Borgar Magnason to find out.
Photo Art Bicnick
Words Alexander de Ridder
Delicious Tinnitus Ahoy!
Holy moly! It’s an adventurous new concert series at Harpa!
Organic bistro
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