Árstíðir – Scena MCER, Marki (Warsaw); December 8th, 2024

My third concert on Árstíðir’s Vetrarsól tour took me to Poland, more specifically Marki, just on the edge of Warsaw. It was a lovely concert hall with good sound and lights and a great show overall. I enjoyed being around my friends and especially liked the second part of the show. Once I relaxed into it, it was bliss.

The trip from Brno worked well with no delays and even getting a bus to Marki was easy enough. It was an early show again so I had little time at my hotel. enough to eat and get changed, then I went to the venue, early as usual. Watched Ragnar’s online hangout while I waited, ran into a few people I knew , hugged Bartek and talked to Jean-Samuel briefly as he went out for a smoke.

They finally let us in at about 15 minutes to 7 and I found a spot at the front. Most people moved further back, because it was a high stage, but the view was nice and I don’t like people in front of me. Soon after I had settled down, A. appeared and decided to move seats and sit with me instead of further back with family. It was nice catching up for a bit. Juts before show start, K. arrived as well. We barely had time to say hello, before the lights went down.

The show started a little late at 19:10 and despite great sound and beautiful light I felt strangely distracted and had trouble getting into it. I could not figure out why though. Tried taking pictures, but realized it was impossible to capture the lighting – at least from the front and I really didn’t feel like getting up and walking to the back. So the first half went by in sort of a blur and I wasn’t really there, more in my head than in the music. I had some nice old tour memories flashing by though. 😉

Anyway, they started with ‘Grafskrift’ and the sound was brilliant. The song is one of my favorites on the Vetrarsól album and I love hearing it every night. <3
Ragnar greeted us in Polish and said it was great to be back “for many reasons” and then seemed to have forgotten what those reasons were. 😀 He told us about the tradition of their Christmas shows and promised to try more Polish words later. ‘Ljóð í sand’ was beautiful, but I struggled a bit to get fully into it, having my thoughts drift away. When even ‘Nú gleymist ég’ could not grab my full attention, I started wondering why I was so distracted, but did not find an answer, so eventually I just let it be and decided it was me, not the guys or the venue.

“Next we would like to sing about the Icelandic sun or the lack of it,” Daníel introduced ‘Hvenær kemur sól’. It was the first song I felt that night and I really loved it. <3 Next, Gunnar told us how they were going to mix Icelandic traditional song with their own music and Continue with their very own Christmas song ‘Allt er hjlótt’. It was beautiful. Then Ragnar spoke about starting with Icelandic a cappella and choir songs at their Christmas concerts and finally releasing an album containing these. The beautiful ‘Heyr himna smiður’ followed.

Gunnar told us about ‘Ljósfaðir’ and how they got a new arrangement of the song from the composer. It sounded lovely. Ragnar wanted to share more stories about how small Iceland is and mentioned how they sang with the Prime Minister once. That was in Washington, D.C. if I am not mistaken. What it had to do with the composer story I don’t know, though. 😀

‘Heiðin’ was great. Somehow it seems to have gotten new life this tour. I like it. ‘Lifsins Pendúll’ is always welcome. Even when I am distracted I can get lost in that song. “You might have noticed that we sing in both, Icelandic and English, ” to introduce ‘Meanderings’ and I thought: “How? You’ve only sung in Icelandic so far.” 😀 It was a nice ending to set one though and I enjoyed it.

During the break I caught up with K. and exchanged impressions of the concert so far with her and A. They were both liking it so the distraction seemed to be all me. A. mentioned how much she loved the beautiful lights and I decided to give up on talking pictures and just take in the atmosphere. During the second set I did just that and it worked much better. I had finally arrived.

The break was a short one and soon Guillaime and Jean-Samuel were back on stage, bathed in beautiful backlighting, playing Clemente’s beautiful string piece. I like it better each night. They got their moment of applause, being introduce as “Europe’s finest string duo” and Ragnar also mentioned all their other projects. ‘Ró’ followed and I really loved it. It does not always speak to me, but then and there it was perfect. I noticed that Daníel did some of the piano work on guitar and wondered if they had played it the same way the previous day – I really had no idea.

Already now, the second half felt much better to me and ‘Lost in you’ made it even more so. Old love of mine, followed by a newer one, ‘Þar Sem Enginn Fer’. It was wonderful. Ragnar spoke about the new album being only a cappella songs and gave a short introduction to traditional Icelandic music. To show us, they sang ‘O min flaska friðda’ which sounded great to me. Ragnar told us about parallel fifth and hen forgot the title of the next song, so Guillaume had to tell him it was ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’ 😀 I love that song and it was amazing. Daníel, Gunnar and Ragnar gave us one more demonstration of that technique with ‘Krummi Svaf í Klettagjá’. Everyone laughed, especially when Gunnar joked it took them years to learn to fall asleep to that lullaby and Daníel added that he was too afraid to fall asleep.

‘Nóttin var sú ágæt ein’ was very beautiful and one of my favorites that night. ‘Endatafl’ was brilliant, I think the best version I have heard on this tour so far. <3 During the first half I had almost forgotten that I had the option to song along. but ‘While this way’ reminded me. 😉 The guys had a fun time announcing the last song, because we just kept saying “awww”  every time they mentioned it until Ragnar said “possibly the last song”. ‘Things you said’ was awesome so we all cheered a lot and clapped loudly until they agreed to sing some more. ‘Land mins föður’ and finally ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’ really ended the show then. It had been a good one.

After the show I went and talked to everyone. Guillaume spoke about the lovely cat he had met at their last hotel and how he just didn’t want to leave. I feel you. I told Gunnar I had felt distracted and he said he was the same and for him it was the soundscape at the center of the stage. I can’t really repeat how he described it but it was the echo of the sounds somehow. He thought maybe I felt that too, because i was at the front. Interesting. Ragnar said he felt distracted as well, just strange vibes, but everything went away during the second half. Same for me. We’ve had that before, picking up on each other’s vibes. 🙂 The cause will remain a mystery, but the good thing is that the second half went better. Malko asked if I had taken pictures, because the lights looked so god, but I had to tell him I did not. Sorry. Said hello to Marta briefly, who had arrived at the last minute, then it was time for final hugs and goodbyes. A. and K. won’t be coming to Krakow, but they brought me back to my hotel. See you next time

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)
Ró
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

Land mins föður
Góða veislu gjöra skal

Vetrarsól tour: 3 gigs down, 8 to go. Next stop: Krakow