Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.07.2017, Síða 41

Music
Becoming Canon
Electronic artists pays tribute to Biogen
Words: Parker Yamasaki Photo: Creative Commons
In music, canon is the technique
in which a single melody is over-
laid with imitation melodies at
different intervals. The original
melody is the leader, the subse-
quent copies its followers. In the
church, canonization is the decla-
ration that a person who has died
was a saint, upon which the per-
son is included in the “canon,” or
list of recognized saints.
Maybe sainthood is an over-
statement, one that Biogen likely
wouldn’t agree with anyway. But
the fact remains that it has been
six years since Iceland’s pioneer
electronic artist passed away, and
his music has since been released
to a wider audience than ever dur-
ing his lifetime.
Lots to be desired
Credit the internet. Credit an
evolving acceptance of techno.
Credit a certain Russian DJ with
a bob cut and a palette for idio-
syncratic electronic music. Nina
Kraviz started Trip records in 2014
with a mixed bag called ‘The De-
viant Octopus’. She continued to
pursue full-length albums of Ice-
landic techno artists like Bjarki
and Exos while maintaining a
healthy crate-digging habit. In
2016 Nina released the label’s fifth
compilation album, ‘When I Was
14’. On it, an untitled Biogen track
appeared, his music’s first appear-
ance on her label, and the begin-
ning of a major move forward into
Biogen’s past.
“I met up with Nina in a coffee
house in Reykjavík a few years ago
and she told me her ideas concern-
ing Biogen and her label,” says Jó-
nas Guðmundsson, a close friend
and collaborator of Biogen. Nina
impressed Jónas with her intelli-
gence and enthusiasm about Bio-
gen’s music and the role it could
play through her label—and Jónas
knew she would pursue her project
wholeheartedly.
Biogen continued to appear in
Nina’s mixes and sets. On June 23,
Trip Records released ‘Halogen
Continues’, a full-length compi-
lation of unreleased and self-re-
leased crate- (and hard drive- and
DAT-) dug tracks by Biogen, pro-
vided by Jónas Guðmundsson, cu-
rated by Nina.
Data digs
“I just dumped the whole bunch on
poor Nina,” Jónas says, referring to
the library of Biogen’s sound files,
collected by Jónas and Biogen’s
friends and family. “The selection
process was mostly Nina picking
tracks and me nodding my head
in agreement. She knows exactly
what she is doing. She wouldn’t be
where she is today if otherwise,”
Jónas says.
‘Halogen Continues’ exhibits a
range of cuts that Nina says she
thought “show his creative ap-
proach most brightly.” The col-
lection is as varied as his live sets
once were, with some tracks puls-
ing like a bursting star and oth-
ers as hollowing as the darkness
that it turns into. Tracks like “Bo-
realis” sputter out at a pace that
would only be appreciated in the
downstairs section of the club,
and others, like “Lag 7,” float so
space-high that you forget what
gravity feels like.
In any sense of the word, a can-
on is a foundation, and the pur-
pose of a foundation is to support
something greater, something
beyond itself. On the final (and
title) track of ‘Halogen Continues’,
Nina and Biogen leave us gazing
at an Earth receding from view,
swallowed into a space of infinite
future creations.
‘Halogen Continues’ is released
through Trip Records. A further
album of Biogen’s ambient and ex-
perimental works will be released on
GALAXIID later this year.
41 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2017
THIS AD SPACE IS RESERVED FOR
ROSENBERG KLAPPARSTÍG 27 TO
ADVERTISE THEIR LOVELY BREAKFAST
& LUNCH WHICH EVERYONE ARE
TALKING ABOUT

THIS AD SPACE IS RESERVED FOR
ROSENBERG KLAPPARSTÍG 27 TO
ADVERTISE THEIR LOVELY BREAKFAST
& LUNCH WHICH EVERYONE ARE
TALKING ABOUT
Electronic musician Nina Kraviz
Suðurgata 41
101 Reykjavík
www.thjodminjasafn.is
tel +354 530 22 00
Hverfisgata 15
101 Reykjavík
www.safnahusid.is
tel +354 530 22 10
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