Culture Feature
Afraid Of The Dark
Iceland’s underground music reaches the surface Words: Steindór Grétar Jónsson The word “myrkfælni” translates as “fear of darkness”—apropos for the tension-filled music presented by MYRKFÆLNI, a new underground music organisation celebrating Iceland’s grittier genres. The group has announced the launch of an international magazine of the same name, aimed at promoting the local underground scene. “ We f i r s t g o t this idea at a black met a l fest iv a l i n Portugal,” says Kinnat Sóley, one half of the team behind t he proj e c t . “ We went to this record store and the guy had a bunch of black metal fanzines that s ome dude s j u s t made themselves. They’d glued everything copy together by hand—real DIY.” Then it hit them: they should start a magazine of their own. Sólveig Matthildur Kristjánsdóttir is the other half of MYRKFÆLNI, and a member of synthpunk trio Kælan Mikla. “There’s so much great underground music in Iceland, but the platform for exporting it is missing,” she says. They quickly set about rectifying the situation, starting up a Karolina Fund crowdfunding campaign. “We’ve been touring with Kælan Mikla for two weeks all over Europe,” says Sólveig, “and the whole time we’ve been on 3G internet in the car, promoting the campaign non-stop.”
Photos: Ulfar Loga Easter Sunday—featuring music by bands like Godchilla, Lord Pusswhip and, of course, Kælan Mikla—they’re around halfway to their €3,300 goal for the magazine. “Our main objective is promoting Icelandic underground music abroad, and the MYRKFÆLNI magazine is a way to do that,” says Kinnat. The rewards for participants vary from a copy of t he f i rst issue or compi lation, to the one-off option—priced at €1500—for a party with the two founder s , w ho’ l l of fer their benefactor a home cooked vegan meal and as much Fernet Bra nca a s they can drink. “Every campaign has one crazy reward,” says Solveig, “so this is what we came up with.” The amount of unorthodox music coming from an island of 330,000 is teeming, and demand for it growing, they feel. It fits with the scene’s inquisitive culture. “People go to concerts featuring Icelandic bands abroad, and if there’s someone selling merch—CDs with Icelandic minimal wave—people want it,” Sólveig says. Kinnat agrees that there’s a niche, but also a substantial market for their kind of music. “Some people just showed up and asked for one of each CD,” she says. “They just trust that it’s good. There’s a practice of supporting the bands in underground scenes like this. When we played the more punk venues, we sold more merch.”
“There’s a practice of supporting the bands in underground scenes. When we played punk venues, we sold more merch.”
Unlimited Fernet Branca The t wo Berlin-based ex pats, dressed in the standard all black, are fired up about the project when we meet up at a vegan café in Berlin’s Neukölln neighbourhood. Having released their first M Y R K FÆL N I compi lat ion on
None more dark The music distributed by MYRKFÆLNI, as well as on Sólveig’s own label Hið Myrka Man (“The Dark Woman”) is diverse, but shares a
“The musicians from Reykjavík all really do know each other.”
“There’s an alternative scene in Iceland, but it’s not just punk kids coming to the shows—it’s all kinds of people.”