Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.08.2019, Page 32

Music
Innipukinn festival has
announced its complete
lineup. Muscle-bound RnB
crooner AUÐUR, Eurovision almost-was
Daði Freyr and veteran musician Bjart-
mar Guðlaugsson have been added
to a bill that already includes Kælan
Mikla, Valdimar, Joey Christ, dj. flugvél
og geimskip, Vök, Sturla Atlas and
more. This year, the festival has moved
to Grandi, where it will take place in
Messinn and Bryggjan Brúgghús, with
an “Útipukinn” outdoor area featuring
a market and superstar DJs like JFDR
and Katla, with live performances
from Briet, GDRN and Svala. Tickets are
on sale now at tix.is/innipukinn. JR

The Myrkfælni music organisation has
unleashed its third compilation. Again
charting the darker recesses of the
Icelandic music scene, the
compilation is a worthwhile exercise
in taxonomy alone—while the
featured artists are from diverse
genres, and so might not necessarily
play on the same lineups very often,
there’s a tangible red thread running
between them. From the sultry
goth-rap of Countess Malaise to the
lo-fi alt-pop of Discipline to the heavy
rock of Great Grief, it’s a ride worth
taking. Download or order a cassette
at myrkfaelni.bandcamp.com. JR
Hildur Guðnadóttir, the mind behind
the haunting score for the HBO hit
miniseries Chernobyl, has secured
an Emmy nomination for her work. In
the category of “Outstanding music
composition for a limited series, movie
or special (original dramatic score)”,
Hildur was specifically nominated for
her work in episode two of the series,
“Please Remain Calm.” Hildur’s genius
for film and television scores is well
documented, having worked with The
Knife, Ben Frost and Ryuichi Sakamoto,
and on the film scores for ‘The
Revenant’ and ‘Arrival.’ The Emmys take
place on September 23rd. AF
MUSIC
NEWS
The Unknown
Ranger
New addition to Airwaves’ line up, Orville Peck,
is keeping the mystery alive
Words: Josie Gaitens Photo: Courtesy of Orville Peck
Iceland Airwaves
See Orville Peck at Iceland Airwaves
2019. Tickets are on sale now. Read
an extended version at: gpv.is/peck
Orville Peck has a lot of thoughts
about identity, which you might con-
sider odd coming from a masked,
pseudonym-adopting country mu-
sician who never plans on revealing
his own. The masks—somewhere
between Zorro and a BDSM Lone
Ranger—are handmade by Orville
himself. He’s always carefully turned
out in a variety of cowboy motifs;
light wash denim jeans, calf-skin
waistcoats, intricately-decorated
suits in jewel colours, and, of course,
a wide-brimmed stetson, from un-
der which Orville’s piercing blue
eyes, the only really identifiable part
of his person, peer out.
It’s not hard to see why many
have described his look, name and
overall act as a stage persona. But
Orville strongly rejects this idea.
“The music is all personal and all
sincere,” he says. “Everything I sing
about is based on my past or things
I’ve experienced, or things I went
through.”
The unavoidable
loneliness of living
The music behind the man is just
as important in drawing in fans,
and it’s every bit as rich in intrigue
and imagery as his visual pres-
entation. Orville’s voice is deep
and mellifluous. Such is the timbre
and resonance of his singing style,
it has been compared to Elvis on
numerous occasions. But it’s the
artist’s songwriting and lyrical
prowess that seem to garner the
most appealing to his fans. Orville’s
songs are vulnerable, full of long-
ing, hope and hopelessness, love
lost and never gained in the first
place. The universal theme of the
unavoidable loneliness of living is
one that speaks to a huge number of
people who find themselves touched
by Orville’s music.
Camp
technicolour glory
Orville has only very recently burst
onto the scene in all his camp tech-
nicolour glory. His debut album,
‘Pony,’ released in January, has al-
ready earned him a huge following,
with Orville being able to count Iggy
Pop, k.d. lang, Paris Hilton and Trix-
ie Mattel as part of his diverse and
rapidly expanding fan base. Along
with this explosive success has come
bookings for many major festivals,
including Iceland’s own Airwaves
festival held in November. Already
this year, Orville has performed at
the Calgary Stampede, had a fea-
ture in Vogue magazine and played
to thousands of (self-named) ‘Peck
Heads’ at sold out shows across the
US and Canada.
It doesn’t come as a surprise
to Orville Peck that country mu-
sic is making a sudden comeback.
Alongside his recent popularity,
there has been the success of ‘Old
Town Road’ by Lil Nas X, which,
at the time of writing, has held
the number one position in the
American charts for a consecu-
tive 14 weeks. For Orville, there
is a clear reason why the music
that many previous generations
of young people had deemed passé
is finding a somewhat spiritual
revival in the current day and age.
Hugely millennial
dilemmas
“I think [country music is] taking
things like loneliness or anxiety
or feeling unsettled or not really
having a purpose where you are—I
think it’s taking on those kinds of
things which are hugely millennial
dilemmas, you know what I mean?
Our generation goes through those
questions all the time but it’s kind
of taking those and flipping it and
finding the adventure and the free-
dom in it. I just think it’s exciting.
It’s kind of like reclaiming the pow-
er within that.”
Horses are a boy's best friends
Emmy nominee Hildur Guðna
Tapes: inexplicably cool again
Indoor people, pictured outdoors
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