Árstíðir – Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg; December 10th, 2024

The concert at Colos-Saal in Aschaffenburg was one Árstíðir show I really looked forward to. Every concert I have seen there has been great. As always, it was a pretty full house, the crew was nice and the lights were great. The band and the audience delivered – the energy in the room was amazing. An enjoyable evening overall.

It was a long trip to Aschaffenburg. While the band got on their bus directly after packing up in Krakow, I spent a few hours at my hotel and left at 4 in the morning. Did my best to sleep some more on the train, but wasn’t very successful. Made it too Berlin in time, got delayed a bit there, but still managed to catch my (also delayed) connection in Frankfurt. Got to Aschaffenburg at 17:15 with just enough time to ea, shower and change before going to the venue and still being the first person there at 18:00. Good hing my hotel was so conveniently located.

Met Guillaume, who was just coming back from the city and hugged him. Malko went out and said hello too. Soon after, G. joined me and then a few others got in line. Gunnar and Jean-Samuel were returning from the Christmas market and  when they rang the doorbell to get in, saying they were of the band, we joked about doing the same. Waiting time was over so quickly. I didn’t check my watch, but I think they let us in early. We scored the center table, but the distance to the stage was quite far, so I feared people would get the idea of standing in front of us. For now we were seated and soon the space filled up.

Right on time, the guys walked on stage and were greeted with huge cheers. ‘Grafskrift’ sounded fantastic. Ragnar greeted us in German, then continued in English. He introduced “Europe’s finest string duo” and told us about the concert we were about to hear. “To warm up properly” we got ‘Ljóð í sand’ and I was once again very happy with the sound, even though it was a bit loud. I even considered getting out my earplugs. Either way, I was enjoying it very much.

‘Nú gleymist ég’ was perfect and just before the part, where he goes super quiet and then loud again, Gunnar and I made eye contact and I smiled at him. It always works so well. <3 I thought the band might be tired after the long trip, but they were full of energy and that energy was reflected back from the audience, who was listening quietly during the songs and then got really loud in-between. Gunnar even mentioned it that we were completely silent at the right moment. Yet the cheering was the loudest I had heard on this tour so far.

“Now we will ell you about something Icelanders really crave, the sun,” Daníel introduced ‘Hvenær kemur sól’. It was so good. I had a great view of Jean-Samuel, so I got to watch him closely as he plucked the violin instead of playing it. Daníel did a fantastic job on the vocals. Afterwards Ragnar explained a little about how the sun only peaks above the horizon in Iceland in winter and told us how Árstíðir means “Jahreszeiten” and how their music is influenced by the weather in Iceland. It was time for ‘Allt er hjlótt’ which translates to something like “Stille Nacht”. It is always wonderful and created some lovely images on my mind.

Ragnar spoke about the a capella songs they play and how their favorite of those was the one they sang in Wuppertal at the train station. They stepped to the center to gather around the double mic and sang it beautifully. Right after, someone threw underpants on stage. They had something written on them, but I could not read it. Ragnar took it and put it in his back pocket and Gunnar commented “nothing to see here”. I wondered i it had something to do with The Bookstore Band. Gunnar explained about ‘Ljósfaðir’ and how they had gotten the arrangement. It was an amazing version of the song. <3 When it was over, Daníel told us how he had just looked up the composer in the phone book and Gunnar added that he had seen and interview with him and how it had been suggested that they sang his song.

During ‘Heiðin’, I really loved the lights. They are always great at this venue. Of course I loved the song too. ‘Lifsins Pendúll’ was amazing. I really fell into the song and forgot all about my camera for a moment. Had to swallow hard when it was over – so many emotions. ‘Meanderings’ was really great too. It was one of my favorites that night and for the first time it did not feel like the odd one out in the first set.

Just as the second part started some dude walked up and decided to stand right  in front of me, close o the stage, so that I and several other people could not see any more. Really? ‘Chante, Ô Peuple Misérable‘ was still wonderful, even with a blocked view and I stood up for a bit, to take a few pictures. Afterwards I told him he was in the way and he first moved a bit, then eventually decided to sit on the floor. That was better.

The rest of the band walked back out and the string players got all the attention. Ragnar always mentions their other projects too and makes sure people know there are albums for sale. ‘Ró’ had such great lights too and sounded lovely. I have so many good memories of this venues that they mixed with this show in my head. 🙂 There was someone in the  audience who apparently recognized ‘Lost in you’ a few lines into the song and choose a quiet moment to cheer. It made me smile. After all, it is a great song.

Gunnar told us they were a band since 2008, then introduced ‘Þar Sem Enginn Fer’, by talking about long drives in the Westfjords, where you have time to contemplate, enjoy nature and get inspired to write songs. It was a great version, but here I really felt the noise level should have been turned down a bit. It was more “Rockband” than “delicate songs”.

We learned that Vetrarsól is the 9th album, but the only one without instruments and got the speech about the development of Icelandic music without instruments to play or music theory. ‘O min flaska friðda’ and ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’ were both beautiful and not too loud. 😉 “Icelandic folk music is a sonic imprint of the reality we inhabit, meaning that the music sounds a bit like our nature looks. Very harsh, dramatic and cold, but also beautiful in a dramatic way,” Ragnar explained and they gave us a sample of ‘Krummi Svaf í Klettagjá’. It is always funny and this time they joked about being shocked to sleep by a song like that.

After that ‘Nóttin var sú ágæt ein’ always sounds extra christmassy. 🙂 ‘Endatafl’ was great and dramatic, which I love. <3 This night, though, ‘While this Way’ was my favorite of the last three songs. I always love it, but sometimes other songs stick out more. This time it really spoke to me, even though I had the feeling they had turned the loudness up a bit during the second half. Gunnar told us it had been fun to be back and that he was not surprised that Colos-Saal had been voted the best venue in Germany. Everything is great here and “the best is the audience”. Daníel gave a shoutout to Malko for driving all night from Krakow and he got his rightful applause. They ended with ‘Things you said’ and the more I hear it, the more I understand why they love doing it.

We cheered and clapped until they came back out. Once again they decided to play a song they had just “revised yesterday”. It was the gorgeous ‘And so it goes’ of course. My heart melted. <3 So many memories, so much melancholia and so much happiness are connected to that song. :’) The finale, as always, was ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’. They explained that even in the party songs there is a touch of melancholia, because in the lyrics it says something about “who knows where we will be next year”. They also told us it was one of the youngest songs on the new album at “only 400 years old”. 😉 It could not have ended any better.

There was a long line after the show, but we got to say hello to everyone. I told Guillaume I loved his outfit, hugged everyone, who wanted a hug and chatted with Ragnar about the underwear. He had asked the woman, who did it and it was her idea – nothing to do with the bookstore band. G. and I told everyone that it was a little bit too loud and she explained beautifully that their delicate music deserves a delicate treatment. I finally wanted to ask Daníel, what sort of lullabies he sings for his daughter, but G. had the same idea and was faster. We learned that they have a whole books full of beautiful lullabies and that she is almost walking already. Wow, such exciting times. 🙂 Eventually, we had to say goodbye and wished everyone a good night. They deserved it. See you tomorrow.

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

And so it goes
Góða veislu gjöra skal

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