mánudagur, desember 17, 2007

Eruption of 4 Icelandic bands @ Eurosonic 2008 @ Groningen (NL)

Icelandic Eruption @ Eurosonic 2008
Between January 10-12th, 2008, 185 acts will play EuroSonic at 20 different venues throughout the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. The event will feature four of Iceland’s most cutting edge and exciting artists, namely:

Jakobínarína
www.myspace.com/jakobinarina
Arriving in a blizzard of pop-punk guitars via a dense thicket of shouty-sung vocals, comes the Sound of Young Hafnarfjördur. Formed out of the classroom when they were just 14, Jakobinarina come from the ashes of the straight ahead punk band Lufthansa, which comprised half of Jako’s line-up - guitarist and main songwriter, Hallberg Hallbergsson, drummer Sigurdur Sívertsen and vocalist Gunnar Bergmann. The band recently released their debut album The First Crusade on Regal/Parlophone, created alongside producer Stan Kybert and engineer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys).
Aged between 16 and 20 and bristling with punk attitude, Jakobinarina are one Icelandic band that will never be called quirky or ethereal
Observer Magazine
A glorious clatter akin the The Cribs or even Blur at their most lo-fiNME
Jakobínarína will appear Thursday at VERA, from 22:45-23:30

Mugison
http://www.mugison.com/
Mugison’s highly anticipated third album, Mugiboogie, is now out in Iceland. It has scored full marks in all the papers and is selling like water in the desert. Currently performing with a five-piece band, the former laptop maverick Mugison – who previously released seminal albums like Lonely Mountain and Mugimama is this monkey music? on Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records – has honed his rock & roll chops, and is ready to set entire towns ablaze with his new-classic sound.
Think of Tom Waits with attention deficit disorder and a monkey fixationThe Times 4/4 Paul Connolly
Icelandic singer-songwriter Mugison already has a reputation abroad for bleak magic, on record and in solo appearancesDavid Fricke, Rolling Stone
Mugison will appear Friday at Huis 'De Beurs', from 20:25-21:10

Ólafur Arnalds
www.myspace.com/olafurarnalds
Only 20 years old, Olafur Arnalds hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometers outside Reykjavík. Combining classical instrumentation with a raw indie aesthetic, his music fits into the Erased Tapes catalogue like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. His debut album Eulogy For Evolution takes the listener on a journey, representing different periods in life, from birth to death. He delicately sculpts each of his own epic, string-laden compositions from beginning to completion. The record has been highly praised by the media and music fans in Iceland and has already created quite a buzz around Europe and further east, in Japan.
"Eulogy For Evolution is perhaps this years most hauntingly emotive sounding experience" UK Music
“…a record of icy atmospheres, beautiful string arrangements and haunting chamber orchestras…” Clash Magazine
Ólafur Arnalds will appear Thursday at De Spieghel Main, from 19:45-20:30

Bloodgroup
www.myspace.com/bloodgroup
What started out as a one-man project in the Eastfjord town Egilsstadir some two years back has quickly transformed into the more engrossing acts of the Icelandic music scene. Raggi, one of three siblings, took the computer he had used as his key instrument out of the closet and got his younger sister Lilja and her Faroese boyfriend Janus to back him up. The third and oldest family member, Hallur, didn’t want to be left out of the party and soon joined the group. Bloodgroup plays powerful and funky rock-influenced electro-dance-pop. They recently included a fifth member, DJ Benni B-Ruff, and have just released their debut album Sticky Situation.
Their tracks range from dark and slightly-angsty electro, to wonderfully pop-friendly numbers, with lashings of that atmospheric orchestra-laced sound which Björk and Sigur Rós have made so well-known…Electrorash
Bloodgroup will appear Thursday at Parlement, from 21:50-22:35

More about the Eurosonic/Noorderslag Weekend @ http://www.noorderslag.nl/

Engin ummæli: