It’s new to me, this idea of ‘pre-Airwaves’ shows. It’s as if the off-venue schedule has run out of venues to invade, so has started to invade the earlier part of the week instead. This year, for example, there is an off-venue line up for both Monday and Tuesday, and yet the festival itself doesn’t […]

Forget the overseas talents of Beach House and Hot Chip (both surely in violation of the ‘you can only play Airwaves once’ policy), the histrionics of Father John Misty, or the London grime of Skepta, Airwaves has the very best home-grown band on show. Here is a list of 15 not-to-be-missed Icelandic bands, in no […]

   Ingunn Huld is a rising Icelandic star, and produces beautiful acoustic folk pop. She’s trying to raise funds for her debut album on Karolinafund, an Icelandic crowdfunding website. I caught up with her to find out a bit more about crowdfunding in Iceland and the album itself. You are crowdfunding your debut album at […]

 Aww. I found this in my local bookshop. Big smiles!

After years and years of tracking down rare imports of Skyr, building trips around Iceland to hit the maximum number of pots per trip, extolling the virtues of skyr to anyone who’d listen, and even travelling to New York to taste the excellent Siggi’s, my Skyr dreams came true when in April, it was announced […]

   There is a real gem on this new offering from Lára Rúnars. It is about halfway in, and is a delicious slice of sunny 80’s style synth pop, that goes down well with a summer barbecue and a glass of something cold. By the time the trumpets kick in on ‘Frelsi’ your neighbors will […]

  This book starts with a health warning. It’s a warning about the validity of trusting that all Icelanders believe in hidden people. Sure, some do and there is mention specifically of the elf school, and individuals that claim to see such beings, but the author, Alda Sigmundsdóttir, is quick to point out the current […]

With their debut album, My Head Is An Animal, the band rode the indie-folk wave that was in the wake of bands such as Mumford and Sons. It was a hugely successful ploy, and promoted the band from the ranks of being successful in Iceland to a stadium filling, festival favorite, multi-platinum selling machine. The […]

A brand new, fresh-out-of-the-box Police Officer leaves his cozy life in Reykjavik for a new world in a frozen and insular Siglufjörður in North Iceland. His arrival coincides with a series of events, including a murder and nasty, malicious assault. As the tension builds, so does the snow, leaving the characters and readers shovelling their […]