Árstíðir – NUN, Karlsruhe; December 23th, 2024

Árstíðir’s concert in Karlsruhe took place at a lovely small club that made me feel as if they were playing in my living room. There were seats / standing places all around the stage. It was a really special atmosphere and the band had just as much fun as the audience did.

After spending a night in my own bed, I left Dortmund in the morning and made it to Karlsruhe with only minor delays. The weather was beautiful so I didn’t mind too much that Google maps sent me off in the completely wrong direction at first and it took me extra long to get to me hotel. After checking in, I grabbed some nice food and then caught up on a bit of sleep. Feeling refreshed, I got ready for the concert and walked to the venue, where I arrived shortly before 6. Jean-Samuel ad Daníel were outside for a smoke, so we chatted a little bit, before they went back inside. Soon after, G. arrived and while we chatted, we were joined by a few other early birds. It was quite cold, but I had tea and my peysa, so it was all good.

The waiting was over surprisingly soon and we got some nice seats at the front.  There were seats behind the stage too and we wondered if that was “backstage” until a regular guest of NUN told us that those were seats for the audience as well – how cool. G. asked the doorman , how many people fit in the club and he said 100. It seemed impossible, yet more and more people arrived and they all found a seat or a standing place somewhere around the stage. It really felt like a living room, I loved it.

At 8, someone from the venue stepped on stage and greeted us all. She told us that everyone working there, did so for free and that this as their last concert of the year. It was a dream come true for some of the team to have Árstíðir at their venue. 🙂 We greeted them loudly as they walked through the audience to get on stage.

They immediately started with ‘Grafskrift’ and I knew it was going to be a good night – they sounded amazing. 🙂 Ragnar greeted us in German and people even answered when he asked “Wie geht’s?”. That was a great beginning. When he announced ‘Ljóð í sand’ people were like “oooh” and he loved the reaction. It is a great song, no doubt and they played it perfectly. I got really lost in the music.

I breathed deeply, as ‘Nú gleymist ég’ carried me away to different worlds. <3 Before ‘Hvenær kemur sól’ Ragnar told us, how obsessed Icelanders are with the weather and how we’d be able to hear weather metaphors in many of their songs. Yes, if we all spoke Icelandic we might. 😉 It sounds beautiful no matter what they sing about. ‘Allt er hjlótt’ was awesome and the audience was great, being super quiet during the songs and clapping loudly in-between.

Ragnar talked about Icelandic traditions and how almost every Icelander sings, then introduced the new album. It was time for more a cappella songs and for the first time they sang ‘Hjá Lygnri Móðu’. What a nice surprise. 🙂 Gunnar told us how they got their arrangement for ‘Ljósfaðir’ – it sounded as beautiful as ever.

‘Heiðin’ the song about hope, felt especially powerful that night. I really loved it.  When I wasn’t completely lost n the music, I looked at the people behind the stage, enjoyed their reactions. Usually I do not see what the rest of the audience does so this was a nice new experience. ‘Lifsins Pendúll’ followed immediately and was perfect. It always is. With ‘Meanderings’ they sent us off t the break. 🙂

The break went by quickly. There were so many interesting people to talk to. Jean-Samuel and Guillaume played us a great version of ‘Chante, Ô Peuple Misérable‘ while people were literally looking over their shoulders. I appreciate the song more every night. <3 Soon, the band was complete again and they gave us a wonderful performance of ‘Ró’. All the instruments were singing to me, I really felt it that night.

Without a pause, they went into ‘Lost in you’ and I recalled how I had first fallen in love with that song 12 years ago. The small venue was really giving me early days vibes and a feeling of nostalgia. I fully embraced it. Gunnar spoke about dramatic Icelandic nature being te inspiration for songs and that’s what happened to Daníel when he traveled in the Westfjords. ‘Þar Sem Enginn Fer’ really hit the spot. I loved the drama!’

Now it was time for music theory and learning about parallel fifth with O min flaska friðda’ and ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’. I quite like the “Icelandic sound” and especially ‘Hátið fer að höndum ein’ is really lovely. Gunnar joked that we might not have expected this when we heard it was a drinking song. Maybe not, but it’s still great. We learned about Contrapunkt and modern music theory, then had some fun with ‘Krummi Svaf í Klettagjá’. After the show I asked all of them if they had heard Svavars version of the song, but they did not know it. Gunnar said that if anyone could pull it off to turn this into a sweet song, it would be Svavar.

They taught us some Icelandic, then ‘Nóttin var sú ágæt ein’ brought some regular Christmas feel back. I always find it very enjoyable. 🙂 ‘Endatafl’ and  ‘While this Way’ were both brilliant. When we had reached the last song, everyone said and Gunnar remarked that this had been something special, maybe because wer were all “crammed in here”. ‘Things you said’ brought the house down. It could not have been any better, I loved everything about this show! Everyone seemed to agree, because they would not stopped cheering. We then learned that they had a curfew and only time for one more song. Of course it had to be ‘Góða veislu gjöra skal’ and that was exactly the ending we needed. What a fun night!

I hugged everyone who wanted hugs, told them, how nice it had been and bought a poster to get signed. Shortly after I did that, Malko sold the last Vetrarsól CD, saying they should have brought more. Luckily there were still vinyls to buy. I gave someone advice on which album to buy and they listened. They guys were all happy with the show and I spent some time chatting with Guillaume in the end, until I realized I was the only guest left . Goodbye guys, see you tmorrow!

Setlist

Grafskrift
Ljóð í sand
Nú gleymist ég
Hvenær kemur sól
Allt er hjlótt
Hjá Lygnri Móðu
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

Góða veislu gjöra skal

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