Changed setlist, difficult to pronounce French songs and too little sleep

Árstíðir – Helios 37, Cologne; December 12th, 2024

Seeing any band in Cologne is usually a treat. There is just something about the audiences there that make every gig a great one. Árstíðir’s concert was no exception. The small club was full, they sang their hearts out and the audience had a great time.

I had left Nuremberg early in the morning, so I would have a least a little bit of time at home, before I had to go to Cologne. It worked out, I got home at noon, had lunch, repacked, relaxed for a bit and was on a train yet again, delayed as always. A few days before I had remembered to asked my friend E. if she wanted to come along. She was in Dortmund for a few days, but had not wanted to go alone. She was on a delayed train as well and G. was on her way by car.

To my surprised, there was nobody there shortly before 18:00 and I could not even find he entrance a first. Google guided me to a metal door in the wall, but that did not look like an entrance, so I walked onwards and came to a large gate closed with a huge chain. That did not look like an entrance either. when I walked back, there was an open gate hat had previously been closed and that was where the entrance was. Luckily I wasn’t alone for long. G. joined me soon and after C. and H. arrived. They had brought Glühwein for the band and gave it o Malko when he walked by. E. arrived and we chatted with everyone around. That way, we got offered a ride bak to Dortmund – perfect.

Once inside, we gathered in front of the stage and tried to get warm, but geez it was cold in there. I did not want to keep on my jacket though, because then I’d freeze outside later. A peysa would have been nice. Oh well, it got warmer eventually. The pace filled up nicely and I could not wait for the show to start.

‘Grafskrift’ already sounded amazing and the audience reaction was great. As usual, Ragnar greeted us in German and introduced the full band this time. He looked super tired. The all-nighter really showed. He sounded great though, the voice was definitely there, if a bit lower than usual. With ‘Ljóð í sand’, E. was smiling already. Good. 🙂 I noticed that Daníel stood turned sideways and wondered why. After the show, I learned that there were some feedback issues and therefore he had to turn his guitar away from the front. It helped.

‘Nú gleymist ég’ sounded fantastic! Ragnar asked if we know what their name means. He joked about not choosing their name because it is hard to pronounce, but because they are obsessed with the seasons and the changing weather. ‘Hvenær kemur sól’ is for sure a valid question in December and it made me think of how Svavar Knútur always talks about January bringing two more hours of light.

They spoke about how, when writing a Christmas song you need to check off certain cliches and they felt they hit the mark with ‘Allt er hjlótt’. They can absolutely be proud of this one. It is a wonderful song. When the band got up to gather around the double mic, they silently joked about who should stand where with lots of grand gestures. To my surprised, they sang ‘Ìsland Farsaelda Frón’ and Gunnar told us to listen for the tonality in that one, to see if it sounded strange. It always does, but it’s also beautiful. They told us about getting a new arrangement for ‘Ljósfaðir’ by calling the composer. It was worth it. The arrangement is so good. Daníel added that he had heard the song the first time at Hallgrimskirkja with an organ and a clarinet. A friend from Germany had come to see the concert and asked to sleep a few hours on the couch. Funnily enough, two people asked if that was me. Nope.

‘Heiðin’, we learned, means ridge and Ragnar explained that before they had roads in Iceland in winter it became hard to cross ridges to get supplies or meet others, so “ridge” has a somewhat threatening connotation. And that is what the song feels like – tense, with a sense of danger. Now I finally understood. The went straight into ‘Lifsins Pendúll’ – I just love how the song swings between quiet and dramatic. You don’t need to know the title or understand the words to feel what the song is about.

Introducing ‘Meanderings’, Ragnar talked about Icelandic being such a small language that everyone is at least bi-lingual. Or Duolingo. 😀 When he claimed “some of us speak a little German”, Gunnar face read “not really” – it was quite amusing. After that we got a short break and I asked E. what she though. She told me she understood why I follow them. I spoke to C. about ‘Meanderings’ and she had a similar reaction to me – the song was so familiar that it sounded strange hearing them claim they had never played it together.

Soon, our favorite string players were back, gently easing us into the second set. This, time, they did not only get a special introduction, but Ragnar also asked what the pice was called and Guillaume supplied ‘Chante, Ô Peuple Misérable‘. When they announced ‘Ró’ someone behind me said “das mag ich sehr” (I like that song very much). It sounded lovely.

After a great rendition of ‘Lost in you’, E. wanted to now what that one was called. So far the second half had almost given us a lot of tranquility and then it got a lot more dramatic again with ‘Þar Sem Enginn Fer’. It’s always a highlight. Ragnar told us we would not find the new album on any streaming platform “because we decided no to give it away for free” – fair. He spoke about Icelandic music history and how isolation had lead to their specific way of making folk music. He kinda lost the plot there, forgetting the names of the classical composers that Icelanders did not know about. ‘O min flaska friðda’ and
‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’ followed, both great as always and then we got a taste of ‘Krummi Svaf í Klettagjá’, which led to much laughter. I keep thinking about how different Svavar Knútur’s version of that song is. ‘Nóttin var sú ágæt ein’ sounded really lovely after that.

During ‘Endatafl’ Ragnar closed his eyes and for a moment I was afraid he might just fall asleep and fall off of his chair. He sounded fantastic though. <3 I wasn’t the only one who cheered loudly for ‘While this way’ and the last song announcement got the usual reaction. Gunna said how Cologne is always a blast and brings great energy. Once agan, they pulled out all stops for ‘Things you said’. It was so good.

They bowed and actually left the stage and walked out as we kept cheering. They did not stay away long, as backstage was partly outside and it was cold. Bringing freezing air, they came back and gave us ‘And so it goes’. I had half expected ‘Heyr hynma smiður’, but wasn’t mad about it. ‘And so it goes’ is a sog I can never get enough of. <3 Gunnar told us that the arrangement of he Kin’s Singers taught them how great a capella music could be. For the grand finale, they stpped out into the audience and sang ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’. Perfect!

Now it was time for me to get out the vinyl I had brought and get it signe by everyone, get some hugs on the way and told hem what a good show it had been. I asked Ragnar if they had left out ‘Heyr hynma smiður’, because it is hard to sing, but he told me that Gunnar wanted to do some more work on the arrangement. Cool, so it’s going to change. he had gotten very little sleep, but was happy with the show anyway. Good. I needed to say goodbye quickly, because our driver was waiting. No complaints here, I was home an hour earlier than expected and got to spend the drive in a nice warm car, talking about music.

Setlist

Grafskrift
Ljóð í sand
Nú gleymist ég
Hvenær kemur sól
Allt er hjlótt
Ìsland Farsaelda Frón
Ljósfaðir
Heiðin
Lifsins Pendúll
Meanderings

Chante, Ô Peuple Misérable (Néstor Romero Clemente)

Lost in you
Þar Sem Enginn Fer
O min flaska friðda
Hátið fer að höndum ein
Nóttin var sú ágæt ein
Endatafl
While this Way
Things you said

And so it goes
Góða veislu gjöra skal

Vetrarsól tour: 7 gigs down, 4 to go. Next stop: Karlsruhe

Friends, many memories and an anniversary

Árstíðir – Club Stereo, Nuremberg; December 11th

The concert in Nuremberg was my 250th Árstíðir show and it was an amazing one. It tool place at a small club with a small stage, but the sound was great and nothing else mattered. I was flooded with memories of the early days on tour with the guys and also enjoyed just being there, lost in music and close to tears more than once. Thank you!

Traveling to Nuremberg was asy. I left Aschaffenburg after 10 and got there at noon, had a good lunch, then dessert at a local cat cafe and still some time to relax at my hostel before meeting G. at the Christmas market for Glühwein. With that and some food in our stomachs we went to the venue, where we soon met up with C. It got quite cold, before they let us in, but once inside I warmed up.

The club was about the same size as the one in Brno. C. and I chose to stood in front of the stage, while G. sat down on the side. The guys had changed the stage set up with Ragnar being on the left this time. I guess it was the best way to fit all the instruments on stage. Soon, C. joined us there – it was a happy reunion.

They started with the wonderful ‘Grafskrift’ and I was immediately caught up in the music. That doesn’t always happen so effortlessly, but this night everything was right. 🙂 As usual, Ragnar said hello and introduced the show, telling us all about the Icelandic winter sun. During ‘Ljóð í sand’ I was singing  along as best as I could and Ragnar looked at me, smiling. I felt every song so much and also felt myself drifting off into memories from long ago, remembering a concert at Schlachthof in Wiesbaden, where the room had been as small as this one and we had sat on the floor in front of the stage and many other shows.

I could not recall when Gunnar had started singing ‘Nú gleymist ég’ like he does it now, but I do remember loving it the very first time I heard it and telling him as much. It was brilliant! Ragnar told us how they had written their first album without having a band name and noticing the common denominator of the songs was expressing complicated emotions while borrowing metaphors from the nature and especially the changing seasons. With the seasons, the light changes and therefore, the lovely ‘Hvenær kemur sól’ followed.

The first Christmas song was announced and Ragnar joked that they thought Mariah Carey or Wham hit the spot. Of course we got ‘Allt er hjlótt’ instead and they played it beautifully. They told us how the next song had influence their career a little bit “when we found ourselves kinda tipsy at a train station in  Wuppertal. you’ve probably seen the video.” I have, and I’m in it too. 😉 ‘Heyr himna smiður’ really works for me on this tour. It was beautiful!

With ‘Ljósfaðir’ we got the story of the one song where they could not work with the mixed choir arrangement and Daníel calling the composer and thus getting an all male choir arrangement. It is definitely one of my favorite songs in the set. 🙂 Rganr spoke about Iceland being so small that everyone is within reach – “yes, we know Björk”. Then Gunnar added that she lives in the same area and he often sees her when he goes for walks and always tries to look elsewhere, because Icelanders like to pretend they don’t care about famous people.

‘Heiðin’ followed by ‘Lifsins Pendúll’ is just the perfect combination. From the old dramatic one o the new dramatic one. Daníel told us that the title means “pendulum of lfe” and that it’s thought about what happens in the afterlife. I did not know that and it makes the song even better. Such a great version too. Unexpectedly, the first set was already coming to a close with ‘Meanderings’ – how does it always go by so quickly? I loved it and I had the feeling they guys were having a good time as well. When the walked off stage, Ragnar gave C. a fist bump and me a quick friendly touch on the arm. He was all smiles.

The break went by as we chatted and Guillaume and Jean-Samuel played the wonderful ‘Chante, Ô Peuple Misérable‘ for us. I can absolutely get lost in that piece of music. <3 After the rest of the band joined them again, they got another chance to shine during ‘Ró’. It has really grown on me this tour. ‘Lost in you’ and ‘Þar Sem Enginn Fer’ were both brilliant. It still amazed me, how they always make their music sound good, no matter what venue they are at. This show was making me so happy, I was smiling the entires time.

Ragnar gave us a “short history of the music of Iceland” and what folk music in Iceland is like. I rather like the combo of ‘O min flaska friðda’ and ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’. They may sound “viking-y”, but especially the second one is really beautiful. “Did it sound weird”? Ragnar asked, “do you feel like drinking?” 😀 Of course they gave us a sample of ‘Krummi Svaf í Klettagjá’ as well. Gunnar set the stage “It’s late at night, it’s snowing outside. You’re two years old and you’ve just been put to bed” Apparently it takes years of practice to fall asleep to it “when you finally get used to it you’re too old for lullabies”. Ragnar talked some more and meanwhile Guillaume and Daníel both were playing a little bit, like “come one, get on with it”. With ‘Nóttin var sú ágæt ein’ the traditional song part ended.

‘Endatafl’ was wonderful and o course I was singing along to the “oooh” and “aaaah” part in the end. I can’t help it. There is nothing I have not said about While this Way’ yet – it still fully captures me every night. <3 The last song came around and Gunnar said it warmed his heart when we expressed how sad we were about it. If all things must end, they should always end with a song as good as ‘Things you said’. *happy sigh*

We cheered loudly and they didn’t even bother leaving the stage, before they asked us if we wanted one more. One? Give me three! 😉 “Since it’s Wednesday, we’ll do two for you,” Daníel said. They had kept  the beautiful ‘And so it goes’ on the setlist and did it perfectly, then ended with the fun ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’. What a great show. I was super happy with it.

I had talked to Ragnar briefly before the show and told him I wanted to take a picture after, because it was my 250th concert. Now, I said the same to Gunnar and he already know. First there was some chatting with everyone and a round of hugs. Finally we all gathered for a picture and I even had a sign prepared saying “This is my 250th concert”. Since he guys all stood together now, several other took the chance to get a picture too.

I talked with Ragnar a bit more, who was about to pull an all-nighter to work on the TV soundtrack is is doing right now. He told me how he had recorded Guillaume for it and that it sounded great at this club.

Finally, they were packing and I announced to Gunnar that I would steal the setlist. He joked that he would allow it. Jean-Samuel noted that it should say the title and not just “string piece”. “You have to tell me the title the,” Gunnar said and G. supplied ‘Chante, Ô Peuple Misérable‘. Gunnar was like “Jean Sam miserable?” and we got a good laugh out of it. Then it was time to say goodbye. Thank you, it was wonderful.

Setlist

Grafskrift
Ljóð í sand
Nú gleymist ég
Hvenær kemur sól
Allt er hjlótt
Heyr himna smiður
Ljósfaðir
Heiðin
Lifsins Pendúll
Meanderings

Chante, Ô Peuple Misérable (Néstor Romero Clemente)

Lost in you
Þar Sem Enginn Fer
O min flaska friðda
Hátið fer að höndum ein
Nóttin var sú ágæt ein
Endatafl
While this Way
Things you said

And so it goes
Góða veislu gjöra skal

Vetrarsól tour: 6 gigs down, 5 to go. Next stop: Cologne