Iceland Ariwaves – Reykjavik; November 1st – 4th, 2023
It’s funny, how every year I feel that Iceland Airwaves isn’t the same any more (it isn’t) and I wonder, if maybe this is the last time I go, only to buy a ticket for the coming years as soon as it is over because I have had so much fun. I saw some familiar artists, discovered a few great new ones and had a lot of fn throughout. Definitely worth it!
Day 0 – November 1st
As usual, the festival started out with some off-venue shows on the dy before the official festival start. I had arrived in Reykjavik in the afternoon, checked into my guesthouse and made my way to Kex hostel.
Venue: Kex Hostel
The whole evening was organized by Jóse, the man committed to wearing orange every day and this time he even donned a hat to match Sam Shaky, The first act of the night. After his introduction, Sam started the concert. He was fun, but the sound was so bad, I could not really understand his lyrics. He explained what his songs were about, so I have to take his word for it. The music was good, but it was too loud overall, with lots of feedback from the speakers. I still had fun, especially watching a group of kids, who were carrying toy lightsabers and danced with them in front of the stage.
Next up was Irene, whom I had loved at G! Festival in summer. She had brought a drummer and a bassist, kicking it off with ‘Human experience’. She continued’Keep on walking’, which she announced as a song about resilience and her belief “that we can achieve anything if we don’t give up”. It was very powerful and made me almost forget about the shitty sound. She dedicated ‘Gatekeeper’ to “all the gatekepers out there and especially my childhood piano teacher. It sounds like there is so much hurt underneath. Wow.
Irene spoke about wolves and how they communicate with howling and how we could learn something about communication from them. She suggested howling, when we have difficulties saying “NO!”. This was the introduction to ‘Boundaries’ and the song contained some great howling and even better piano. The set continued with ‘Nightless’, before giving us “the most important song I have ever written”, ‘Wars untold’ and it was fantastic and when it ended, someone said “that song is so good!” 🙂
‘Blindspot’ followed and I really loved the rhythm. She used the song to introduce the band and thank everyone for coming. Irene told us that the next song, ‘War is over’ was personal and explained how our individual peace often depends on world peace, because we feel small when we hear about wars everywhere, but there is always something small we can work on. Finally, she played Kate Bush’s ‘Running up that hill’ for us. It was the perfect way to end her show. It was a great set with great energy overall.
Setlist
Human Experience
Keep on walking
Gatekeeper
Boundaries
Wars untold
Blind Spot
War is over
Running up that hill
Of course the band I had really been waiting for was Árstíðir. Since they were not playing the main festival this year, I was happy to see them off venue. It was only the three of them, since Guillaume and Jean_Samuel had not come over this time around. They stepped on stage, said hello and started with ‘While this Way’. <3 The sound was still terrible, but I immediately had a smile on my face. I just love them so much.
Ragnar asked us how we were doing and I heard that his voice wasn’t in a great state, i.e. he sounded like he had a bit of a cold. Luckily you could not hear that when he was singing. They played ‘Kirin’ next, a great introduction to the Blik album. 🙂 It was fun seeing Gunnar on the keyboards. They mentioned that “we spent half the time talking to each other in Icelandic and the other half talking to others in English” and thus, half their songs are in Icelandic and continued with ‘Þar sem enginn fer’. It was great, but Daníel’s voice was a bit lost in the mix, sadly.
‘Mute’ was next and I remembered a few Airwaves agin when they had first played the song. It had some great reverb that evening. The sound had only gotten a little bit better overall, but it was wonderful either way. It had the feeling the guys were enjoying this gig. About half the audience had seen them play live before and the others had come to discover something new.
“Now we’re gonna bring back the feel,” Gunnar told us and that it was the theme song of the new album to have some fun and dance a little. It was great, if a bit feed-backy. I can’t help but move along along with that song. Ragnar had considered saying something cheesy to introduce ‘Lover’, but decided against it or so he said. 😉 It was a great version. Right after, they gave us ‘Sanity’, which is always amazing. He was so expressive throughout. The ended with a surprise ‘Kill us’ and went “full acoustic” on that one. It was lovely, despite the feedback from the speakers. Wat a great set!
Setlist
While this way
Kirin
Þar sem enginn fer
Mute
Bringing Back the feel
Lover
Sanity
Kill us
Afterwards I talked to them briefly and learned that Raggi had an eye infection – I had been wondering why he was wearing sunglasses. Poor guy. A round of hugs and went home, deciding the evening could not get any better.
Day 1 – November 2nd
Venue: Grund
Having managed to pick up my festival wristband the previous evening, I could go straight to Grund the next day for the opening ceremony. Every year, the president of Iceland comes to this old people’s home for the official opening of the festival. The festival organizers say a few words, the president says a few words ad among children from a nearby kindergarten, elderly people and festival guests, who managed to get up early, music is played and Iceland Airwaves is on the road.
This morning, the wonderful Una Torfa was the first one to play. I had seen her at Airwaves before, but forgotten just hw great she is. Just with a guitar, she entranced us all wit her music. It was all in Icelandic, but I felt it in my heart and enjoyed the melody of the language. I loved how diverse the songs were from very soft to more rocking. She is clearly an artist to watch out for.
Next up was Mugison, who told us about playing Airwaves 20 years ago at Astro (a venue that no longer exists I believe) and the contacts he made back then. He played a mixture of old songs and new, Icelandic and English, switching between guitar and accordion. He took off his glasses in the beginning, joking that he could not be a rockstar with them on. I had so much fun listening and watching him. So did everyone else and he even got an encore with a sing-along for all of us. What a great start.
Venue: Lucky Records
After a nice swim and a prolonged lunch break, I went to Lucky Records in the afternoon in time for Morning Bear. He is a lovely singer/songwriter and his music reminded me partly of The Anatomy of Frank. It made me miss them dearly. He told us he had just written songs again after a long hiatus and told us a little about each one of them. One was about getting help for depression and one about giving yourself a break. I can’t remember any titles, but I enjoyed everything he played.
Daníel Hjálmtýsson was up next and unlike the previous year he was playing solo. It was great nonetheless. He mostly played songs from his new album Labyrinthia and used backing tracks to support his guitar playing. I was much impressed and really enjoyed his set.
Afterwards I headed to the Sky Bar to sie Soffia, but she was so late that I left before she even started.
Venue: Fríkirkjan
Made it to Fríkirkjan before the doors opened, but there was a line already. Still got a good seat and settled down to see Elín Hall. She was fantastic offering songs of a great variety. Everything was in Icelandic, so she explained what they were about and offered a QR code with a link to translations. Very cool. We learned that her day job was being an actor and she spoke briefly about a horror film she was filming.
Her song ‘Friends’ was about dating and we all laughed at her explanation. It asks the question “Were we friends when…?” this and that happened. ‘Bloodsucker’ was about about going to a horror movie with a lover, finding oneself in the story and seeing him as the bloodsucker, while ‘Dreams of Red’ was described as a movie soundtrack and ‘Bankastræti’ was wondering about what people want from music. She was great and impressed me so much that I bought her album on bandcamp.
Setlist
Home
Friends
Jupiter
When the fear dies
The bloodsucker
Dreams of red
Bankastræti
Sunna Margret was interesting, a lot more electro than I expected, but pretty cool. She used a loop station and thus made me think of Thea Gilmore. I liked her overall.
Venue: Art museum
Went to Iðno next to see Hugar, but the place was packed so I decided to continue to the Art Museum, where I caught the last few songs of Yard. They were pretty cool and once they were done, a lot of people left and I managed to get close to the front, the perfect spot to see Bríet.
She delivered a fantastic show, from the songs to the band to her outfit – I loved everything about it. Many of her songs were in Icelandic, but she played something in English too and everyone around me knew the words. It was such a great atmosphere. She moved all over the stage, with her long braided hair flying behind her, visited the members of her band and grooved with them. The band was great too and I loved their performance. Her set even involved a costume change and when it ended, I wasn’t the only one wishing for more. Wow.
Stayed for a while to checkout Love and Joy, who were cool, but I soon decided, getting a glimpse of them was enough.
Venue: Gamla bio
Arrived at Gamla Bío in time for gugusar. I had heard good things about her, but never seen her live. It only took a few moments to understand why so many people love her. What a force of nature, dancing wildly all over the stage, jumping about an excusing so much energy. It was fun and I absolutely moved with the music, while I watched her neon hair flying. There was even a sing-along in the end and I was happy I had come.
It was my plan to see Whispering Sons next, but I soon realized they were not for me and decided to cal it a night.
Day 2 – November 3rd
Venue: Mals og Menning
Day two started at Mals og Menning, the Bookstore turned café, for an afternoon organized by Jóse. First on the bill was Lady Lex. She played some nice songs on the bass and I thought it was a good start.
Irene followed and once again she was brilliant, playing a different setlist from the one she had at Kex two days earlier. This time the sound was so much better and there were even some people dancing to the music. I watched from upstairs, happy to be there. The somewhat poppy ‘Human Experience’ was first and I loved it. She greeted us and continued with ‘Skybound’ – it was beautiful.
She told a different story to introduced ‘Keep on walking’ this time and explained that it is a song about healing, step by step and she wrote it as a mantra to herself. The lyrics are quite dark, a powerful song. Again she dedicated ‘Gatekeeper’ to certain gatekeepers in the music industry and her childhood piano teacher. I love how full of anger some of her songs are. She almost screams them out.
We learned again that wolves howl to communicate their boundaries or rather the boundaries of their territories and how they are peace loving creatures by nature. She invited us to practice some howling with her during the song ‘Boundaries’ and showed us how. 🙂 ‘Nightless’ was almost sweet in comparison – I loved it. Irene mentioned that she was invited to wrote the theme music to the documentary series ‘Untold Arctic Wars’ and that it was hard to wrote, realizing that we had so much time to learn our lessons and yet still have not. She was pregnant at the time and said that made it even harder. It was ‘Wars untold’. I got goosebumps throughout.
“Hee-ya, hee-ya” started ‘Blind Spot’ and the drum rhythm kept me on edge. It suits the song perfectly, feeling almost uncomfortable. In the end, we got a good clap along going. She said she wanted to talk about peace some more and how world peace is hard and we might feel like there is nothing we can do about that, we can always work on our inner peace and thus create peace for the people closest to us. She wrote ‘War is over’ at a time when she felt she was continuing an inner war that she did not need any more. It was a nice contrast to the doom and gloom feeling of the songs before. Once again she ended the set with a cover of ‘Running up that Hill’, mentioning how music is timeless and that 39-year-old song became a hit a few years ago. It was great.
Setlist
Human Experience
Skybound
Keep on walking
Gatekeeper
Boundaries
Nightless
Wars untold
Blind Spot
War is over
Running up that hill
The band I had been waiting for even more was of course Árstíðir and I loved everything about this concert. Most of all I enjoyed the wonderful sound that was leagues better than at Kex. Jóse made a brief introduction and mentioned they were about to go on tour across Europe, before they started with ‘While his Way’. I sighed deeply – it is such a perfect song to start with.
They goofed up the beginning of ‘Kirin’ at first, laughed and continued. It was so good, I was moving in tune with the music. Ragnar thanked everyone who had organized the show and the two other performers. Since there were some people, who had never seen them before, he introduced the band briefly, said hey were “Bilingual by necessity” and the next song was going to be in Icelandic, ‘Þar sem enginn fer’. So cool!
‘Mute’ followed and I felt the underlying heartbeat, so happy I got a good sounding show that day. Gunnar explained they had written two albums during the pandemic and told us that the second one of them had just been released and more of a positive vibe than what we might be used to from them. ‘Bringing back the feel’ was perfect for showing those positive vibes and is always a favorite. I can never sit still with that song.
Despite being their happiest album, Blik is still in minor keys, Ragnar told us and apparently all Icelandic artists prefer minor keys. They continued with Lover’ and it sounded quite big and dramatic. Not as dramatic as ‘Sanity’ though. “It’s called Sanity, but there’s a prefix missing there”, Ragnar joked and mentioned they had so much fun in the studio with the two pandemic albums, working on all sorts of ideas. The performance was amazing.
Once again, they ended with ‘Kill us’, back to the roots of their band, no effects, just guitars and voices. I loved everything about it and only wished their set could have been longer. 🙂
When they were done, I said hello and goodbye to them, hugged everyone who wanted to be hugged and left for a dinner break before heading to the next venue.
Setlist
While this way
Kirin
Þar sem enginn fer
Mute
Bringing back the feel
Lover
Sanity
Kill us
Venue: Gamla Bio
My first stop of the evening was Gamla Bío, where an interesting combination of artists was playing – they had wildly different styles, but I still wanted to see three in a row. It seemed to be a thing this time around, to put contrasting music at the same venue. If the goal was to change audiences between bands, that was definitely achieved.
Sigrún Stella was the first artists I had come to see and she kept us waiting for a bit. I can’t remember ever seeing someone start late during the official Iceland Airwaves shows, but I guess there is a first time for everything. It was worth the wait though and I enjoyed her music. It reminded mit of something else, but I could not put my finger on it. I also wondered where I had seen the bassist before, but had no idea. 😉 Overall they were good and they ended on a nice cover of ‘Wicked Game’.
Many Airwaves ago I learned that Icelandic Punk music is young and female – ever since I have seen gróa each time I git a chance. These young women always Rock the house. They were so much fun, screaming out the lyrics, jumping, running around the stage and playing all sorts of instruments. All their songs are great, even though I still have no idea what they are singing about. The power and energy comes across just fine and I just enjoyed watching them. There were great drum solos too and two of them ventured in the audience at the end. What a great show that was.
Marketa Irglova then, was the complete opposite, playing dreamy, pop-ish music on the piano, supported by a string quartet. She told us she has been living in Iceland for 11 years, but never played Airwaves before. I’d say it was about time. Her music was lovely, many songs were long and I loved every minute. Especially, of course, when she played ‘Falling Slowly’, the song we had all been waiting for. What a fantastic performance. <3
Venue: Art museum
I was off to the Art museum next to check out Blondshell and she immediately drew me in. Great music, cool vibes, good band and just tremendous fun watching them. I had had no idea what I was in for when I went there, but was so happy I did. It was so good, I later bought her album on Bandcamp. The perfect ending to a wonderful night!
Day 3 – November 4th
Venue: Kex Hostel
On the final day, I started at Kex to catch up on two artists that had not fit into my schedule so far. The first of them was the amazing Elinborg. All I could think throughout was “Wow” – great voice, great range, beautiful songs and she seemed really lovely too, telling us she only sings songs about love and repeating one in its entirety, because she could not hear herself. People were dancing to her music and everyone had a great time. I absolutely loved it.
I stayed for Lón, who I had seen earlier this year at a festival in St. Gallen. They were just as good as I remembered and funny throughout, joking about their misleading song names. One was calles ‘Earthquake’, but had nothing to do with one and they sure would one day wrote one called ‘Volcano’. 😉 Their music was nice and varied and they summarized it as “upbeat songs about dark stuff” – checks out. Sadly, I could not stay until the end, because I needed to get to the next venue.
Venue: Fríkirkjan
Made it to Fríkirkjan in time for the doors to open and already knew I was going to stay there most of the night. It all started with Anna Gréta, offering a wide range of songs from political songs about women in Greenland, who were implanted with uids without their consent to dreamy songs about mountains and a flower. I loved all of them.
Kongulo brought an interesting mix of music, telling us she can’t decide what type of songs to write. She had Rakel and Neonme as guests, each giving the music their own twist, with Neonme singing the more electronic songs. One of them was about one about her grandma and one about a scary tarot reading. Interesting topics for sure and nice overall, but not 100% for me.
That changed with the next artist, Eydis Evensen, who was absolutely fantastic. She was playing beautiful piano and had a string quartet with Unnur and Karl. I was so happy to see them and they played wonderfully. There was no singing involved, but the music made me dream and drift of into wonderful thought landscapes. It was amazing and I wasn’t the only one who thought so – they received standing ovations!
Sandrayati followed and I almost immediately saw that Olafur Arnalds was in the house. I wondered if he had written or produced a song with or for her and it turned out he had, but he was mainly there, because he is her husband. He even played piano on one song. She played really beautiful music with strings supporting her and also used an instrument from Indonesia that I didn’t know. I loved everything about her set.
The church got really packed for Nanna of Of Monsters and Men fame. She was brilliant, playing a fantastic set. I loved all of the music and it made me happy to see Olafur Arnalds as a guest once again, because they had written a song together. The entire evening at Fríkirkjan was wonderful and I was happy I stayed for all of the artists.
Venue: Gaukurinn
I was quite tired already, but headed over to Gaukurinn to finally catch Soffia. I loved her music, but my tiredness really made it hard to listen. The audience was a tad too loud too. She had Petur Ben play with her, which was an added bonus for me. I was glad I went, it was rally nice music. After that, I called it a night – enough of Airwaves for me.
It was a good year overall and I enjoyed most of the music I saw. It felt like there was less of a selection than there had been in previous years, but I still found someone interesting to listen to at all times, so there wasn’t anything more I could have asked for. The late nights are getting hard for me, but even with ending the day at midnight, there is more than enough music o see. Thank you, Iceland Airwaves, see you next year.