Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.07.2017, Qupperneq 46

Culture 46The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 12 — 2017
Futuregrapher
(Árni Grétar
Jóhannesson)
Árni Grétar, or Futuregrapher, is a well-
known electronic musician in Iceland.
He has released numerous albums, and
taken part in countless collaborations,
for example with Jón Ólafsson, Japanese
artist Hidekazu Imashige, and Borko. Our
favorite remix these days is his reworking
of “Sometimes I’m Wrong” by einarIndra.
Liam Howlett (The Prodigy)
This man changed my life when I was
a teenager. My older brother owned the
‘Experience’ album and it changed my
life forever. I would go into his room
and listen to it on repeat. What a game
changer! I loved, and still love, The
Prodigy’s first three albums; I still lis-
ten to them today. His style of playing is
so good and his use of samples are in-
credible. People sometimes think about
The Prodigy and think about them as
a great live band (which they are in-
deed), but as a musician if you listen to
their music, which is produced by Liam
alone, you hear what a great talent he is.
Like I say, his style of sampling is some-
thing people don’t tend to focus on, be-
cause it’s so well done. ‘Experience’ is
filled with reggae and ska samples and
the ‘Jilted’ album has samples from all
over the place. So well done and so well
produced. Not to mention that his first
albums were sequenced on a Roland
W-30 sampling workstation. Madness.
Biogen
Sigurbjörn Þorgrímsson, aka Biogen,
was my friend and mentor. He’s the
reason my pseudonym Futuregrapher
was successful. He released my first
album in 2009 and he and Tanya Pol-
lock helped me getting into the Weird-
core scene. I looked up to Biogen when
I was younger, so being his friend in his
last years on this planet was one of my
best times in life, and I’m very thank-
ful for his friendship and what he did
for me. Today he’s alive in the world of
music—Nina Kraviz just released his
album ‘Halogen Continues’, and more
will be released soon.
A Guy Called Gerald
Gerald Simpson is one of the most in-
fluential artists in the world for me. He
has produced and released everything
in electronic: acid, house, techno, jun-
gle, DnB and ambient. He taught me
that an artist should not be focused in
one genre, but just write and produce
how they feel at the moment. I followed
that path, since I feel my albums are all
very different. Check out his albums
‘Black Secret Technology’ (1995) and
‘Hot Lemonade’ ( 1989). So good.
Aphex Twin
Richard D. James is probably seen as
the “God” in world electronic mu-
sic, and with good reason. He is the
Beethoven of our times—the mighty
composer. All his releases have been
in my life for so long, and taught me a
lot. His music helped me through bad
times, and made good times better. His
style is dirty yet beautiful, with some
nice grittiness. His label Rephlex is my
favorite label. All their releases are out
of this world.
Autechre
Another Warp Records artist, along-
side Aphex. Autechre are two blokes
who try something new with every re-
lease. Their sound is so beyond and so
sci-fi that it touches you and makes you
travel from the sofa. “Sófatrans” (“sofa
trance”) and “Heiladans” (“brain-
dance”) are great terms for Autechre.
From their first album to their last, I
will always follow them around. They
are specialists in making music in Max
for Live and are pure software today,
still sounding more phat and more ex-
ploring than any other band out there.
Björk
When I talk about influence in the
world of music I always have to men-
tion Björk. She has managed to stay
creative and super good writing mu-
sic for decades. I have so much respect
for her. She was in the Sugercubes,
made music with Megas (my mom’s
favorite artist, who I also love), made
music with 808 State—an old love of
mine—and many of my favorite art-
ists have remixed her. Listen to her al-
bum ‘Debut’ and then to some of her
last albums. What an inspiration! And
her voice is like no other. She is one of
the best music explorers in the world
and as a live performer she is one of
the best.
In my top 10 there are also The Orb, Bri-
an Eno, Pete Namlook and Carl Craig.
Long live the music!
MAKING OF
AN ARTIST
Words:
Árni Grétar
Jóhannesson
Photo:
Art Bicnick
gpv.is/making
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