Árstíðir – Pavillon, Hannover; December 3rd, 2024

Starting in Hannover, Árstíðir’s annual Christmas tour was on the road and it was a lovely start. Nice venue, nice audience and a nice setlist too. I always love seeing the first show of a tour, when everything is new and fresh and surprising. Now I can’t wait to see how it will evolve.

Got to Hannover without much trouble, spent some time relaxing at my hotel and got to the venue shortly before 6. It was at a cultural center and thus I could wait inside. Slowly, more people arrived and even I. and G., who were both traveling on delayed trains, got there before the doors opened. We found seats at the front and admired the stage backdrop for a moment, then spent the time chatting.

The Vetrarsól album has been out for a few weeks now and they have finally recorded the a cappella songs people have been asking for for years. I was a little bit afraid of not liking the album, because none of the songs are their compositions and yet, they somehow made the songs their own and I am really loving it. Thus, I was curious, which of the songs they would play.

Shortly after 8 they walked out on stage and gathered around the double mics at the center, starting with ‘Grafskrift’, one of my favorites on the new album. It sounded brilliant. They took up their instruments and I noticed that Ragnar had a different piano and Guillaume had a different cello then usual. I meant to ask, But never got around to it. I also noticed that Jean _Samuel and Daníel were wearing very similar shirts and Gunnar was back at the center stage spot.

From the new, they went to the immediately familiar with ‘Ljóð í sand’. It sounded a bit rough around the edges, but lovely. I really enjoyed it and was super happy when they played ‘Nú gleymist ég’ right after. Gunnar told us they were now going back to the beginning and the first song they recorded, ages ago. It was ‘Ages’ of course and immediately I noticed that something was off. Jean-Samuel was exchanging a questioning look with Daníel and he explained something. It sure sounded different. Afterwards they were laughing and Daníel explained that he had put the capo in the 4th fret instead of the 5th and thus thrown everyone off. He sounded a bit scratchy – no wonder he was drinking tea.

Next, we were going to hear their very own Christmas song and Ragnar shared a memory of how they had recorded that song not in the studio, but in his bedroom. And they invited an opera singer, Karin to help them. “We all fell in love with her and one of us started dating her” – at that point Daníel shrugged. Oh yes, I remember her from the earlier band day. She had joined them at the very fist Christmas concert I saw. Anyway, ‘Allt er hjlótt’ sounded really nice and then they were back at the double mic for ‘Land mins föður’- I was amazed that Guillaume and Jean-Samuel sang on all the songs, even the new ones. Guillaume had his iPad to look at the lyrics, but it is still very impressive.

‘Ljósfaðir’ followed and sounded lovely too. Danéil told us that he had heard the song performed with an organ and a flute and then found an a cappella arrangement, but for female voices, so he contacted the composer and he wrote them a new arrangement. Wow. Gunnar added, that just before that the composer had been on TV and the interviewer had talked about Árstíðir and their train station performance of ‘Heyr himna smiður’, suggesting that it would be cool if they sang ‘Ljósfaðir’  so all the stars aligned.

‘Heiðin’ was next. That song always works and is nothing they need to rehearse much, so they played it perfectly. Before the show we had talked about songs we wished for and G. ad mentioned ‘Lifsins Pendúll’. We never expected that to be played, but they did. What a beautiful surprise. <3 They ended the set with ‘Meanderings’, a song that Ragnar said they had never played live in english with the band. I had to think about that, because he has played it solo many times, so it is very familiar to me. He was right of course, as a band they had only performed it in Icelandic.

They took a break and for the first song only Guillaume and Jean-Samuel came back, performing a beautiful string piece. I later learned it was from their latest album, but I still don’t know what it is called. The rest of the band joined them and Ragnar mentioned they would be showing their skills on the next one as well – their only instrumental pice, ‘Ró’. Only instrumental piece? What about ‘Oroi’? 😀 It was nice to hear it again.

Next up was ‘Moonlight’ and I: grinned at me, because we had joked about not wanting to hear that one. It’s not my favorite, but they did perform it nicely. Then, they immediately redeemed themselves with playing ‘Lost in you’. That is a song I have missed. It even took me a moment to remember the title, even though I immediately knew the words. Second biggest surprise of the night and what a great one.

Ragnar told us a few things about Icelandic folk music – that it’s only vocal and has unusual tonalities like the parallel fifth. The first example they were going to give us was ‘O min flaska friðda’, a drinking song which translated to “Oh my beautiful bottle”. We all laughed at that. Then they gathered at center stage again and sang it for us, followed by the beautiful ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’. *happy sigh*. Ragnar also talked about Icelandic nursery rhymes, joking that no child outside Iceland would fall asleep to these. To demonstrate they sang ‘Krummi Svaf í Klettagjá’ while Gunnar mimed putting a baby to bed. After the first verse he said “At this point the child might have fallen asleep and then the second verse goes like this” – it was much more dynamic and would wake anyone up.

Gunnar spoke how many Icelandic Christmas songs are either  like happy children’s songs or stolen from Italian pop songs and neither suited them, but then they found ‘Nóttin var sú ágæt ein’. It was lovely and I am sure I have heard it before, but can’t remember f it was at one of they Christmas shows in Reykjavik or elsewhere. Either way, I enjoyed it very much. At one point Ragnar said that this was the first time in Hannover and it is true. they have played close by back in 2013, but never in the city.

That was the last Christmas song of the main set and we got some Árstíðir originals, starting with ‘Endatafl’. It was wonderful as always and so was ‘While this way’. <3 They ended with ‘Things you said’ like they had at Castlefest and once again it only occurred to me that they had not played ‘Shades’ when Gunnar mentioned it after the show.

We clapped and cheered until they came back for one more with Gunnar mentioning that was about all they had time for. It was ‘Heyr himna smiður’, the song that had started all the requests for a cappella songs and should of course be there. It was a good finale. We continued clapping and they came out once more, but only bowed one final time.

I chatted with everyone but Daníel after the show, because then they had to go pack up. It’s a good thing, he sounded like he needed to save his voice. Told everyone the show was a 7 out of ten and how I had liked the setlist, but that it was a bit rough still. Both, Ragnar and Gunnar indicated there would be changes along the way. We’ll see what has happened when I get back to the tour in Brno. I also talked about my travel plans for the next few days and got a European train ranking from Jean-Samuel. Germany is not all the way at the bottom but close. 😀

It was fun guys, take care of yourselves and I#ll see you soon.

Setlist

Grafskrift
Ljóð í sand
Nú gleymist ég
Ages
Allt er hjlótt
Land mins föður
Ljósfaðir
Heiðin
Lifsins Pendúll
Meanderings

String piece
Ró
Moonlight
Lost in you
O min flaska friðda
Hátið fer að höndum ein
Nóttin var sú ágæt ein
Endatafl
While this Way
Things you said

Heyr himna smiður

Vetrarsól tour: 1 gig down, 10 to go. Next stop: Brno