Reykjavík, Iceland, really does feels like the edge of the world. This picturesque city is set on a promontory in a dramatic sweeping bay, surrounded in all directions by steely rippling sea, lava flatlands and dramatic mountains. The centre of the city has a villagey feel, the compact grid of quaint streets dotted with the brightly coloured houses and apartments of the city’s 250,000 residents.
For one weekend of the year, there are 3,000 fresh faces in town as party-hard music lovers from all over the globe descend on the city. Scores of bars, shops and venues, alongside four performance spaces in the gleaming new Harpa concert hall, house Iceland Airwaves – a true jewel of the annual festival calendar.
Emerging acts
As well as a lineup that features some of the best emerging acts on the worldwide circuit and unrivalled small-hours nightlife, Airwaves also lifts the lid on Reykjavík’s creatively thriving music scene. Beyond the much-documented brilliance of Björk, who opens proceedings with her formidable Biophilia presentation, there’s a community of superb artists like incendiary proto-punks Æla, mournful indie star Borko, and the electronica big-band Kippi Kaninus. Even internationally established scene-elders Gus Gus may not exactly be household names outside of the Reykjavík 101 postcode, but the talent and quality of these bands is a gift to the festival’s open-eared visitors. Many play two or three shows, from the hangar-like space of the city art gallery to the bustling culture-hub of the seafront Kex Hostel, to packed open-house daytime shows in the front room of local scene king Steinþór Helgi’s flat.
For those here to see the international guests like Beach House, tUnE-yArDs and Austra, it’s important to arrive early to guarantee entry – standing in a long queue in the sub-zero October winds doesn’t look like fun, and there are many venues that reach capacity long before the star turn of the night.
Love-in at NASA
One highlight amongst many is a Reykjavík scene love-in at NASA, the city’s most atmospheric concert hall. Hermigervill’s opening performance is a lesson in how to make live electronica entertaining, his bobbing head beaming with happiness as he whips up the crowd with Metronomy-like dance tunes. Five-piece guitar band REYKJAVIK! thrash out a fierce brew of anthemic, impassioned rock music that includes the best deadpan banter of the weekend from guitarist Haukur S. Magnusson – “My mom and dad are here, high-five them if you see them – they look like me except older and one of them’s a woman”.
Next are Retro Stefson, a young ensemble centred around smashing together as many genres as possible – disco, funk, afro-beat, rap and metal all have a part to play in their kaleidoscopic pop. They play an effortlessly enjoyable show for the capacity crowd, with virtuoso work on every instrument. There’s no telling how far they could go. Headliners Hjaltalín are veterans by comparison, and play an accomplished set of seductive, simmering lounge music.
Outside of this unique country’s context, both of these overtly mainstream bands might receive a different reception from fashion-conscious modern tastemakers. But for us here in Reykjavík they are just perfect; home-grown stars making celebratory, life-affirming sounds that sparkle with natural Icelandic musicality.
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