Reykjavík Grapevine - nóv. 2020, Blaðsíða 18

18The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09— 2020
Soundtrack To
The Pla!ue
Become prisoner to
Au!n’s waking dream
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photo: Daria Endresen
Album
‘Vökudraumsins Fangi’ is out now.
Pick it up on the Au!n Bandcamp.
Au!n’s newest album ‘Vökudraum-
sins Fangi’ (‘Prisoner Of A Waking
Dream’) ends on the line “Minning
"ess sem aldrei var!.” It means
“Memory of what never existed.”
Eeriness encapsulated
“It’s open to interpretation, but it’s
the memory of that which never
was, of nostalgia to a past that may
not have or possibly never actually
happened,” guitarist Andri Björn
Birgisson explains. We’re on a vid-
eo call; the audio crackles in and out
like the wireless itself knows of the
eeriness of Andri’s words. “Being
nostalgic for something that never
was real,” he continues carefully.
“Oh, I thought you were talking
about millennials who were nos-
talgic for the 90s even if they didn’t
experience them,” vocalist Hjalti
Sveinsson adds. They burst out
laughing, the sort of technological
dystonic beauty of the last moment
immediately gone. Eeriness erased.
Andri, still grinning, doesn’t
give in to Hjalti’s shenanigans.
“Being nostalgic for something
that not only they didn’t experi-
ence, but never actually happened,”
he concludes, receiving a decisive
nod from Hjalti in return. “Or
yes, the goddamn millennials.”
It’s a typical exchange for the
band. They’re probably one of the
most fun to interview, playing off
each other so much that you kind of
want them to have a TV show along
with an album. Perhaps that’s in the
works—they’re full of surprises.
Genre-less
When I first covered Au!n back in
2016, they were the underdogs of
the Icelandic black metal scene.
Their style was different—more
atmospheric than dissonant—and
they didn’t hold true to the rig-
id “standards” of black metal,
which made them uncommon.
They were honest, funny, and
not afraid to say what they really
thought about things. Now, just
four years later, they’re signed to
Season of Mist, one of the biggest
metal labels in the world, and
have become one of the coun-
try’s most well-known acts. The
underdog has become the leader.
Their newest release is a cul-
mination of all this work. It’s no
doubt their most sophisticated
effort yet—a melange of black
metal, death metal, atmospheric
doom, with even a touch of rock’n
roll at times. Basically a gen-
re-less creation. My first impres-
sion when I sat in my room listen-
ing to it was that I had to turn the
lights out. This was a despondent
anthem for loneliness—the per-
fect soundtrack for plague-life.
The band credits this progres-
sion to many things. Maturity, in-
creased confidence in their own
ideas, more polished production
and a new lineup with previous
bassist Hjálmar Gylfason jump-
ing to guitar and Matthías Hlífar
Mogensen taking over for him.
“It sounds like I wanted it
to sou nd,” g u it a r i st A!a l-
steinn Magnússon states. He’s
just joined the call, sitting back
on his couch holding his four-
month-old baby. “When I got
the mix back I felt ‘ok wow, this
is basically perfect’. This is the
Au!n that we want to continue.”
The end of the world
In fact, they’re fi l led with so
much creativity they’ve essen-
tially already written a new al-
bum, they reveal. All of them,
they emphasise, have adapt-
ed very well to our new reality.
“If you’re depressed at home,
what changes if you go to quaran-
tine?” Andri says, laughing. “No,
everyone’s trying to be so posi-
tive and hopeful—get rid of that.
It’s not so bad. You get to stay
at home and watch TV. I don’t
think that’s the end of the world.”
“Yes, catch up on thinking,”
A!alsteinn interjects. “Enjoy
the slow pace that the world is
forced into. Take a deep breath.”
“And imagine if this hap-
pened in the 90s, you’d have to
wait in line for the video store
and then find out nothing was
available,” Hjalti laughs, referenc-
ing his earlier statement. “I’d be
first in there to rent all 20 copies
of ‘Titanic’. I’d be that person.”
This causes the conversation—
previously about the album—to
completely devolve and morph
into what ends up being a rather
surprisingly divisive and long de-
bate on the merits of James Cam-
eron’s film, which really should
be an article in itself. Hey—many
other news outlets might have
covered this album, but only one
knows A!alsteinn’s feeling on ‘Ter-
minator 2’. Now that’s a scoop.
Cheer up, guys
Music
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“It’s the memory of that
which never was, of nos-
talgia to a past that may
not have or possibly nev-
er actually happened.”
A"alsteinn's child was unable to be photographed