Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.04.2017, Blaðsíða 25

ing to specific genres,” he says,
suggesting that such categorisa-
tion is barely even an afterthought
for Icelandic musicians.
With several carriers now offer-
ing direct flights between LA and
Reykjavík, Sigtryggur feels certain
that stronger con-
nections will arise
between these two
disparate locales.
“Iceland still feels
very far away, for
many,” he says, “but
there’s a growing
population of peo-
ple who have gone to
Iceland specifically
to see music, and
we’ll definitely see
more tourists coming from here.”
Walking in a movie
Siggi and the rest of the Icelan-
dic contingent can’t help but gloat
about the bountiful sunshine that
Angelenos take for granted. “Get-
ting some sun in my face this time
of year was perfect,” says Jófríður
Ákadóttir, who performed as JFDR
on the festival’s opening night.
Not all the Icelanders fully under-
stood the sheer predictability of
LA’s climate. Johanna Rees was
showing journalists from RÚV
around the city and noticed one
of the Icelanders lugging around a
long- sleeve shirt and puffy jacket.
“I told him, ‘You really don’t need
to carry that stuff around LA,’”
she laughs.
Steinunn Eldflaug Harðardót-
tir, better know as dj. flugvél og
geimskip, has had no shortage of
sun-soaked adventures on this
first visit to LA. One day, she rent-
ed a convertible Ford Mustang and
drove into the desert to see the
giant dinosaur sculptures—old
roadside attractions—in Cabazon;
another day, she went sailing and
swimming in the sea. She’s ea-
ger to enumerate creatures she’s
seen so far: dolphins, pelicans,
sea lions, butterflies, and squir-
rels. Yes, squirrels. “They’re not
in Iceland and I love them,” she
says, “It’s fun to see them run on
the powerlines.”
Steinunn, whose music paints
a world of wonder and whimsy,
can’t seem to get enough of the
vastly different atmosphere in LA.
Small details that
ordinar y A ngele-
nos would ignore—
flowers sprouting
along the sidewalk,
palm trees scrap-
ing the sky—have
distracted her from
walking in a straight
path. “It’s like walk-
ing in a movie,” she
says, “But of course
it feels like being
in a movie because the movies
are made here.” That she played
her first LA show in as majestic
a venue as Disney Hall is not lost
on Steinunn. “It was really crazy,”
she says, before offering a more
fantastical rendering of the same
sentiment: “I imagined I was play-
ing in a club, and also that I was a
princess in an old palace.”
New connections
As the festival wraps up and the
last remaining Icelanders soak up
surplus vitamin D, it’s too early to
tell how the festival has affected
the musical connections between
LA and Iceland. However, judging
from the packed houses, the gen-
eral hubbub in the LA media, and
the pride with which the events
organisers speak, the festival ap-
pears to have been wildly success-
ful and popular. “We are making
new connections everywhere,”
says Siggi. “So we’ll see in the near
future what avenues will open for
better export of Icelandic music.”

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Culture Feature 25The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 06 — 2017
“It’s like
walking in a
movie...
because
the movies are
made here!”
The sky in LA is a strange blue
colour and it's weirdly bright -
Photo by Anna Ásthildur
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