Aldrei fór ég Suður

The other big pop music festival in Iceland was held last weekend in remote Ísafjörður and was webcast live via the Aldrei fór ég suður site. Fortunately, highlights from past shows are archived there - as I suspect this year's show will soon be. While not all of the acts are really ready for this kind of exposure, it was nevertheless a fascinating look at the Icelandic music scene and the extra footage of the town and the festival goers offers a great window for the armchair traveler. There was even a live on-stage marriage proposal during Reykjavík's act! Most groups sing in Icelandic; some of the performers are very unique or exciting:



Orphix Oxtra (2011,2012), Nerdy modern jazz, lots of weird meters and jagged melody lines.



Sóley (2011), Beautiful folk-rock from a fabulous singer/songwriter.


Páll Óskar (2011,2012), Even more fabulous and endlessly charismatic, although he mostly features his disco hits done to backing tracks in these shows.


Retro Stefson has come a long way since I first saw them in 2006. They have literally grown up in the public eye. Real crowd-pleasers, they were the climax of the festival.


The site is definitely worth a bookmark if you intend to go to Airwaves- it is a tremendous reference. As true high speed internet (fiber-optic) becomes more prevalent I can see how this kind of presentation may ultimately supplant regular broadcast media. My broadband connection of the live material was adequate, but the archived HD video is far smoother- although by its being edited it loses some of the live "electricity" of the event.