Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.01.2017, Síða 21

21The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01 — 2017
WHY BIOGEN WON
Hindsight is twenty-twenty, they say, but foresight is less than perfect.
Every once in awhile comes someone with that special gaze—those who
aren’t looking back, but are looking at what’s to come, whether they
know it or not. “Biogen is a huge pioneer in Iceland,” one panellist said.
“In breakbeat, in drum and bass, just electronic music in general.”
Earlier this year a Karolina Fund was created by friends and fam-
ily to release a set of his tracks on CD and vinyl. “He has a whole fam-
ily around him,” another panellist noted, regarding the Karolina cam-
paign. “He created music but he also created a scene for that music to be
proliferated.”
That’s why Biogen gets our “Artist to Remember” award: for seeing
something that wasn’t yet there.
traditional drum patterns. In-
stead Biogen offered his listeners
fragmented shreddings, constant
irritations, glitches, imbalance—
and enough creative ideas to sup-
ply a whole battalion of electronic
musicians. You’d rarely hear his
music on the radio or in the clubs.
But things change—recently his
tracks were featured on a Fabric
mix by the Russian superstar DJ
Nina Kraviz, and he featured on a
vinyl earlier this year with Aphex
Twin, on Trip Records. That’s just
the tip of the iceberg, as much more
of Biogen’s work will see the light of
day in 2017. His musical creations
weren’t made to serve the past or
the present, but the future.
His works were full of contrast.
Occasionally it was soft and mel-
low—like a cloud in trousers. The
listener would be aware after
minutes of listening that they’d
hardly taken a breath. Biogen
would call it “sofatrance.” Other
times the music was harsh and
uncompromising. There would be
uncomfortable, irrational beats
and glitches. It was “weirdcore”—
a vast uncharted territory. Some
might be tempted to connect the
contrast and sometimes contra-
dictions in his music to his hard,
long battle with manic-depressive
disorder. The disparity in his mu-
sic was its strength. The listener
could never know what to expect.
Each release and every concert of-
fered something different.
Many young musicians owe
a lot to Biogen. In 1995 he was
among the founding members of
Thule Records, a breeding ground
for many of today’s most notorious
electronic artists. Around 2007 he
was one of the leading forces in
the Weirdcore movement, a group
of artists focusing on the uncon-
ventional sides of electronic mu-
sic. He’d encourage young artists
to release their music into the cos-
mos. There would always be words
of support. Artists were encour-
aged to make mistakes and learn
from them—and that wouldn’t be
done while sitting in a basement.
Many electronic musicians have
memories of their first concert,
standing behind their laptops or
shyly hiding behind a bundle of
cables, watching a tall and com-
forting figure hovering above ev-
eryone else in the crowd. That was
him, and it happened rarely that
he wasn’t there.
He was a friend and a mentor
to many of those who are now the
leading members of the Icelan-
dic music scene. The scene itself
owes him for his hard work and
creativity. Earlier this year his
friends and family, with the help
of hundreds of backers on the
Karolina Fund website, released a
double-CD compilation and a 12”
vinyl with some of the works done
shortly before his final departure.
That wasn’t released as some sort
of closure—but as a beginning.
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01 — 2017
21
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