Reykjavík Grapevine - sep. 2019, Blaðsíða 32

Music
The Iceland Airwaves
music festival has an-
nounced a new addi-
tion to their programming entitled
Airwaves Pro. A music industry
conference, Airwaves Pro will be held
in collaboration with Iceland Music,
STEF, Reykjavík Music City, Firestarter,
and MIT Bootcamps. The goal of the
conference is to connect creative
professionals from all over the world
and will feature panels, seminars,
keynotes, and networking sessions. In
tandem with the announcement, Air-
waves revealed four of the speakers
taking part in the event: Alison Donald,
Stephen O’Reilly, Tina Tallon, and Nelly
Ben Hayoun. The conference will run
on Thursday, November 7th, and Fri-
day, November 8th. Iceland Airwaves
will be held November 6th to 9th in
Reykjavík. Tickets are currently 17,900
ISK and can be bought at icelandair-
waves.is HJC

Útvarp 101, Iceland’s youth-led radio
station, just announced the debut of
101 Festival, a new music festival led
by the radio station on August 31st.
Formed by Unnsteinn Manuel
Stefánsson, his brother Logi Pedro
Stefánsson, Aron Már Ólafsson, Saga
Garðarsdóttir, and Svanhildur Gréta
Kristjánsdóttir, Útvarp 101 seeks to
give exposure to young Icelandic
artists that aren’t getting regular
radio play. Currently booked for the
festival are Hjaltalín, 101 BOYS, Vök,
Floni & Birnir, Cell7, Auður, Konfekt,
Yamaho, Gróa and GDRN. The festival
has limited space and an age limit of
18+. Tickets are 3,990 ISK and can be
bought at tix.is/ HJC
Sigur Rós dropped a new mixtape,
‘Liminal Sleep,’ on August 9th. The am-
bient effort, part of their liminal sound
bath series, is a collection of diverse
releases spanning the last 20 years. Of
the release, the band gave this state-
ment: “we like the fact that sleep re-
mains defiantly mysterious; something
we all do—all need to do—but can’t
ever get fully inside. This playlist is a
modest attempt to mirror the journey
of a sleep cycle, with its curves, steady
states and natural transitions." The
mixtape is available on all streaming
platforms. HJC
MUSIC
NEWS
Mentally Sound
Hugar is back with their long-awaited
second album
Words: Josie Gaitens Photo: Art Bicnick
Album
Hugar's album ‘Varða’ will be
released on August 28th.
Bergur Þórisson and Pétur Jónsson,
the multi-instrumentalists respon-
sible for the rich and dreamy sounds
of Hugar, are sitting down to talk pri-
or to the release of their long-awaited
second album, ‘Varða,’ which comes
out on August 28th. It’s been five
years in the making—“Not because
we were lazy,” emphasises Bergur.
“But because we were trying to do
everything.”
The small studio they occupy is
cramped with innumerable instru-
ments, and Bergur admits that this
perhaps opened up, “too many possi-
bilities.” But the duo are finally satis-
fied and happy to release their work
into the world. “It’s got everything,
but that’s part of what makes is what
it is,” Pétur tells me. “We’ve learned
a lot on the journey,” adds Bergur.
Kick start
‘Varða’ follows the slow-burning suc-
cess of Hugar’s self-titled 2014 debut.
Almost accidentally, the childhood
friends realised they’d created an
album’s worth of songs from casual
music-making sessions and decid-
ed to make them available for free
download online. The story could
have more or less ended there, as
it does for so many small, experi-
mental bands. But Hugar had been
working with friend and collaborator
Ólafur Arnalds, and asked him to
play drums on the album.
“It’s a lesser known fact that he
used to be a drummer in a lot of death
metal bands,” Bergur explains. “We
needed a drummer and so, as kind of
a joke, we asked him to play. He was
like, ‘why not!?’ When we released the
album, he posted it on his Facebook,
so obviously that picked up quite
some attention from the beginning.”
New ways to play
From there, interest grew slowly but
surely. Three years after the album
was released, Hugar started to tour
internationally. Bergur and Pétur
are aware that this is quite different
from the normal release and pro-
motion process but feel like their
approach is part of a new movement
within the music industry. “There’s
so much out there,” muses Bergur.
“You don’t really release an album
with massive PR so everybody has
to run out and buy it from the really
expensive top shelf in the record
store. That’s not the point anymore.”
In addition to the album, Hugar have
been working on different kinds of
projects and recently completed a
score for a new film that will be re-
leased in October. The movie, ‘The
Vasulka Effect,’ tells the story of the
lives and work of Icelandic artist
Steina and her partner Woody Vasul-
ka, who were pioneers of video art
in the 1960s. After its premiere at
Nordisk Film Festival in Sweden,
it will tour international festivals,
with Hugar performing some of the
soundtrack live in conjunction with
its release.
Broad horizons
Film score gigs are just part of
Hugar’s busy schedule these days.
In addition to a run of European
shows in the coming months, Hugar
will perform at Iceland Airwaves in
November for the third year running.
The duo have found the transition
from playing small gigs to devel-
oping an international fanbase a
strange but rewarding experience.
“It’s always surprising and when
you meet someone and they’re like,
‘oh I saw you at Airwaves in Iceland
three years ago,’” Berger tells me.
“But we’re really happy that they
come back to the concert when we
show up in their hometown. That’s
a really good sign.”
Hugar, serving face
Better than ASMR
The coolest kids in Reykjavík
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