Iceland Airwaves — Day 3

It was after noon before I arrived at the pool where was met with a variety of festival armbands. Simon and Dave and Rich were photographers from Ireland who had some good stories about Iceland Airwaves. Annu and Amanda(?) were a couple from Boston and hard-core Iceland enthusiasts, it was their ninth trip as well. We had a great talk, going beyond music into traveling in general and how you don’t find many people at home who share your Icelandic enthusiasms. My kind of people. I made it back to my flat for lunch before heading out again—only 9 acts on my schedule today. I ended up seeing 12.

16:00 Magnús Johánn, at Lucky Records, was really a great discovery:

He kept the crowd in rapture with his Keith Jarrett-styled compositions on piano and organ:

17:00 Gróa, also at Lucky Records, the absolute musical opposite of Magnús, and the crowd dug both sets:

18:00 Kevin Cole, DJ-ing at Smekkleysa. A legend (he was Prince’s DJ) Kevin is program director at Seattle’s KEXP radio station and a true friend of Icelandic artists. I couldn’t seem to escape him:

18:15 Kaktus Einarsson, also at Smekkleysa. Kaktus is another Icelandic musician that I’ve seen grow up over the years, I first saw him as a teen-ager in 2009 with Captain Fufanu, a techno duo. He is a good singer/songwriter, although what’s the thing with whistling these days?:

20:00 Guðmundur Óskar Guðmundsson (my pool-mate from Wednesday) on bass with Tilbury, Kex 2:

20:30 Árný Margrét in the art museum. Árný has come a long way since her debut two years ago, although I liked her better in a more intimate setting:

20:40 Greyskies on the IA center stage. There was a lot of buzz about him. I found him to be personable and a good guitarist:

21:10 Tappi Tíkarrass, in Gaukurrin. This was the vintage band that Björk sang with before The Sugarcubes. Unlike fine wine, they have not gotten better with age:

21:30 Elisapie at Idno. Beautiful voice, kind of gave off a Stevie Nicks vibe. Elisapie is an emblematic Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter. Bonus points for having a baritone guitar player in her band:

22:20 Sandrayati in Fríkirkan. Of Filipina-Irish-American heritage, hers was another beautiful voice.  No picture—the sight-lines in the old church are limited when it is full and it was packed. Another Kevin Cole sighting.

22:50 Dustin O’Halloran at Gamla Bíó. Dustin was another pianist/composer, backed with cello and viola. He was definitely not a Keith Jarrett!

The sound mix was excellent, especially on dynamic swells with the strings (may have been harmonically enhanced.) Kudos to the audio mixer:

23:20 Andy Schauf at Gamla Bíó. Before Andy came on, a young man sat next to me and we began to talk. When he found out I was from Minnesota, he was curious about the music scene there in the 1980s. When he found out that I had done sound for The Wallets he was awestruck! What a nice ego boost.

When Andy finally did perform it was obvious that his “groove-folk” style had a big local fan base:

00:20 The final act of the festival, JFDR, played next, I’ll review her show in the Airwaves Day 4 post.

I leave you with a parting shot of Karolina of the punk group Gróa, taken Saturday afternoon at Lucky Records.

I think Miles approves: