Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.12.2018, Qupperneq 35

Secretly
Satanic
SMIT Records quietly amasses an impressive
catalogue of experimental music
Words: John Rogers Photo: Timothée Lambrecq
Label & Book
Listen at smitrecords.bandcamp.
com. Attend Héðinn’s book launch
at Mengi on Friday December 7th
from 5-7pm
“It’s about infecting people with
satanic music,” says Héðinn Finns-
son, in a quiet, deadpan voice, with
a neat grid of monochrome 7” re-
cords on the table in front of him.
An almost inaudibly shy presence,
he’s explaining the name of SMIT
Records, a DIY micro-label that
he’s been secretively running since
2016.
The label started almost by acci-
dent, when he put out some of his
own music, made under the name
Íbbagoggur. “We weren’t really a
label when this came out,” he mut-
ters. “It’s just me. Then, I designed
the sleeve for SiGRÚN’s ‘Hringsjá’
EP. The two had a certain look, and
so I decided to start a label.”
A kick in the butt
Releasing music by SiGRÚN was a
logical next step. Her ‘Smitari’ EP
is perhaps her most experimental
material to date, featuring soft
drones that dissolve into fractious
noise. Other releases include an ar-
resting instrumental EP by sóley—
Héðinn’s partner and label help-
er—plus a thrillingly experimental
EP by saxophonist Túmi Árnason,
and the astoundingly accomplished
‘Wood/Work’ album by bassist In-
gibjörg Turchi.
“It’s all experimental music,”
says Héðinn. “It’s also a kick in the
butt for people who were afraid to
put out their music, like Ingibjörg
and Túmi.”
Continues Sóley: “All of those
people are our friends—that’s the
link. Björk Leifsdóttir is a singer
who’s been my friend for many
years, and this is her first release.”
The pains of being
a wallflower
Sóley is helping to bring some vis-
ibility to the project by, for exam-
ple, starting an Instagram account.
“I’m trying to be label manager,”
she smiles. “It’s easier when it’s not
your project, in a way. Héðinn is not
good at advertising what he does.”
Héðinn remains stoical about
the pursuit of attention. “It doesn’t
really matter, because we only do
twenty copies of each record,” he
says. “It doesn’t matter if people
know right away. I’m fine with them
selling over the course of a year.”
Bird murder
Héðinn has a degree in art and also
does illustrations of other types. In
fact, he’s about to host an exhibition
of his new book.
“The book is about a ptarmi-
gan,” he says. “It looks like a small
person with a long nose. You get to
to know the bird—it doesn’t find a
mate and gets sad. Then it’s sud-
denly shot, plucked, skinned and
cooked. It’s kind of a vegan book.”
Héðinn grins, suddenly revealing a
hidden sense of mischief. “The bird
gets completely torn apart.”
A giant spit
The record sleeves of SMIT’s re-
leases are also an expression of his
art practise. The sleeves are hand
cut and glued, with vivid black and
white designs on the cover. “The
images are made on a copy ma-
chine,” says Héðinn. “This one is a
bunch of flies I collected one sum-
mer. This one is a giant spit. The
others are improvised imagery. I
hope I’ll exhibit them one day.”
“I’m using it secretly as inspi-
ration,” says Sóley. “I sent the girl
who made my Airwaves dress a lot
of photos, and she made a dress out
of it.” She smiles lovingly at Héðinn.
“He wakes up at 6 a.m. to draw,
you know. He’s a gem that nobody
knows of.”
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This man wants to infect you with satanic music. He's also "a real gem."
35The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 21— 2018
“This one is a bunch
of flies I collected
one summer. This
one is a giant spit.”
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