Atlantica - 01.09.2004, Side 52

50 A T L A N T I C A AIRWAVES
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ICELAND’S POP LABORATORY
FEW WOULD DISAGREE THAT ICELANDIC MUSIC HAS BEEN MAKING WAVES IN THE REST OF THE
WORLD. THE ANNUAL ICELAND AIRWAVES FESTIVAL SEEMS INTENT ON KEEPING THE STORM GOING.
ATLANTICA TAKES A LOOK AT ICELAND’S BIGGEST MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR AND FINDS OUT
HOW DESTINY MANAGES TO BRING TOURISTS TO REYKJAVÍK IN LATE OCTOBER.
Iceland is a country that vacuums up the culture of the rest of the world
and spits it back up after running it through its own filters. When punk rock
hit Iceland (two years later than everywhere else), it broke out with a
unique Icelandic edge that derived its energy from the local art scene –
up-and-coming painters sometimes even lived in the same house as a
band working on their new material. The Sugarcubes, who are rightly
credited with bringing considerable attention to Icelandic music, were a
pop band, but you could never say they followed the same formula as
everyone else. Icelanders are born different, for better or worse, and it
really shows in the type of music they produce.
When the fifth Iceland Airwaves festival starts up this year, festival-goers
will witness a unique community of musicians that has grown from the
seeds of “blue-eyed pop” that the Sugarcubes made famous. Today’s
music scene mixes and mashes contemporary genres; its participants,
many of whom insist they only do this because there’s nothing better to do,
frequently produce awe-inspiring albums that defy expectations and clas-
sifications.
YOUR NEW FAVOURITE BANDS
In recent years, this sparsely populated island in the North Atlantic has
produced a horde of world class bands: Sigur Rós are now world famous
and signed to one of the biggest record companies in the world, and the
woollen-hat-and-mittens electronica of Múm has inspired at least one fan
in Portugal to write an extensive play-by-play of the band’s exploits. With
Singapore Sling’s second album, which was released this summer, you
hear a band that has grown out of wearing their influences on their sleeves
– finally coming into a sound of their own. All of these bands share a cre-
ative spirit, perhaps because of their musical borders.
The Iceland Airwaves festival is the biggest musical event of the year in
Reykjavík. There are other festivals for jazz and electronic music, but this
is the only one that showcases so many different styles of music. Each
year, the festival organisers invite several bands from countries around the
world to play. Usually, the bands that come are on the verge of success
internationally. They are generally groups with a bit of hype or buzz about
them, but they’re definitely not superstars. Mr. Destiny, the company that
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