Fresh
In This Issue Intro: The Literature Issue
Choreography There's only so many rock concerts you can go to until you feel you've seen everything. And for someone who's gotten used to live, visceral thrills, the world of choreography opens up a whole new world. When your only exposure is through pictures or videos, it may seem a bit weird and cold, but an artform that is mostly motion and mostly taken in by the eyes can have a very direct effect, and that's where the concert comparison comes in—pieces can be hypnotic, gut-wrenching, elating or soothing, take you to all kinds of
Words: PARKER, SVEINBJÖRN & JOHN
THE GRAPEVINE PLAYLIST
einarIndra - Sometimes I’m Wrong Murky late-night electronic soul has become a genre all of its own thanks to James Blake et al, but einarIndra adds a welcome flourish to the moodiness. Starting off with a familiar slow, clicking rhythm and washedout textures, it climaxes nicely with stabs, stuttering beats and mashed up brass shining through the mist. JR
places. It shouldn't come as a total surprise then that the most talked about cultural event last month was a choreography piece, Da Da Dans. The show is a collaboration between Reykjavik Dance Festival darlings Inga & Rósa, electronic musician and Retro Stefson member Hermigerfill, and The Icelandic Dance company. To this viewer the show depicts the confusion and anger of our age, in a humorous, compassionate way. But the beauty of choreography is that it differs for each person what you take away from a show. SHP
Bang Gang - Dive into the Deep Blue Sea (ft. Esther Talia) Barði from Bang Gang usually keeps a low profile here, but he’s world-famous in France, where he’s in a band with that guy from Air plus a bunch of other projects. He’s in town for a bit though, doing music for the theatre piece Brot Úr Hjónabandi at the City Theater. This is the closing song from the play. Lovely. SP
Bjarki - Fresh Jive Despite his breakout club hit "I Wanna Go Bang"—which has 2.4m plays on YouTube—and the release of three mix-andmatch collections this year on Nina Kraviz’s Trip label, Bjarki remains relatively obscure in his homeland. "Fresh Jive" could change that—it’s a mischievous hi-tempo track, slightly reminiscent of latter-day big beat, with a great cut ‘n’ paste video. JR
Auður - 3D / Both Eyes On You 23-year-old R&B star Auður previewed his debut album 'Alone' at Airwaves this year when he made it available to stream, Pokémon Go style, at the Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík. 4000 people apparently did so. For everyone else, two smooth and polished tracks about love in the age of internet are now streaming for all, via Soundcloud. JR
Iceland is, famously, a literary country. Deprived of the means to create music or art for centuries by colonial overlords from Denmark, early Icelanders instead took to channeling their imagination into words. Thus, we have the Sagas (see page 60), Eddas and skálds, a rich tapestry of monsters, magic and mythology (p. 62), Rímur—the chanted rhymes that emerged in the 14th century and survive to the present day—and, most recently, a resurgence of rap. The tradition of storytelling laid the foundations of a rich literary culture. Today, Icelanders publish more books (per capita, of course) than any country in the world—five books a year per 1000 people, or roughly double that of the aforementioned colonial overlords. In 2011, Reykjavík became a UNESCOcertified City of Literature, and each Christmas time, the publishing industry goes into a frenzy each year for the “jólabokaflód”—the Christmas book flood. Everyone gets a book or two for Christmas, and word of mouth on the best new titles is intense. With that in mind, welcome to our Christmas Literature Issue. From a beginners guide to Icelandic literature (p. 12), to interviews with outstanding Icelandic authors Sjón (p. 20) and Oddný Eir (p. 26), to Vala Þóroddsdóttir’s young writers to watch (p. 38), to a list of our contributors’ very favourite Icelandic works (p. 40)—we hope you find something interesting to read in these pages, and then perhaps outside of them, too. JR
Listen & watch: GPV.IS/PLAY
Emmsjé Gauti Svona er þetta Rap can be a lot about dipping and weaving through a language. Saying one thing and meaning another. Gauti’s latest album, Sautjándi November, is pretty straight forward. It was released on— you guessed it—17 November. The track is equally straight forward. A bip-bop beat and a cool head nod. Gauti just telling it like it is. PY
CULTURE EDITOR Parker Yamasaki parker@grapevine.is Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík www.grapevine.is grapevine@grapevine.is Published by Fröken ehf. Member of the Icelandic Travel Industry Association www.saf.is Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 25,000 copies. PUBLISHER Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson hilmar@grapevine.is +354 540 3601 publisher@grapevine.is ACTING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sveinbjörn Pálsson editor@grapevine.is ACTING MANAGING EDITOR John Rogers john@grapevine.is ART DIRECTOR Sveinbjörn Pálsson sveinbjorn@grapevine. is NEWS EDITOR Paul Fontaine paul@grapevine.is TRAVEL EDITOR John Rogers john@grapevine.is
FOOD EDITOR York Underwood york@grapevine.is PHOTO EDITOR Art Bicnick art@grapevine.is COPY EDITOR Mark Asch ILLUSTRATIONS Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mark Asch Nanna Árnadóttir Hannah Jane Cohen Grayson Del Faro Óli Dóri Svetlana Graudt Gaukur Grétuson Valur Gunnarsson Björn Halldórs Eunsan Huh Helga Þórey Jónsdóttir Susanna Lam Davíð Roach York Underwood Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir EDITORIAL INTERNS Arta Balode arta@grapevine.is Signe Smala signe@grapevine.is CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Sophie Butcher
NEWS
P:16 REFUGEE MYTHS Common refugee and asylum seeker misapprehensions debunked + No government this year? + Union struggles, volunteerism, all the whippet news that's fit to print
CULTURE
P:26 GET LIT
Oddný Eir on her breakthrough book, Land Of Love & Ruins + A guide to our favourite Icelandic books + Vala Þóroddsdóttir's writers to watch + Ásta Fanney's gig picks
TRAVEL
P:12 FAR EAST
What goes on in Neskaupstaður, Iceland's easternmost town? + Exploring the Snæfellsnes peninsula + Beneath the surface at Silfra
Martin Diegelman Timothée Lambrecq SALES DIRECTOR Aðalsteinn Jörundsson adalsteinn@ grapevine.is Helgi Þór Harðarson helgi@grapevine.is EDITORIAL +354 540 3600 editor@grapevine.is ADVERTISING +354 540 3605 ads@grapevine.is DISTRIBUTION distribution@ grapevine.is PRESS RELEASES listings@grapevine.is
year by Fröken ltd. Monthly from November through April, and fortnightly from May til October. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. The Reykjavík Grapevine is distributed around Reykjavík, Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Seyðisfjörður, Borgarnes, Keflavík, Ísafjörður and at key locations along road #1, and all major tourist attractions and tourist information centres in the country. You may not like it, but at least it's not sponsored (no articles in the Reykjavík Grapevine are pay-for articles. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own, not the advertisers’).
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