Iceland Part I

 From the Faroes we take another ferry to arrive in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, the land of the northern lights, glaciers and geysers, where everybody knows everybody else and singing and late night story telling is central to the culture.  Iceland's most famous person by a country mile is singer/songwriter Björk Guðmundsdóttir, who is better known by just her first name.  She is mostly known for her avantgarde rock, electronic and jazz influenced style, singing mostly in English in her unmistakably unique voice.  However she has also released songs in her native Icelandic such as this song from her 2004 album Medúlla called Vokuro:

Indie rock band Árstíðir were formed in 2008 in Reykjavik.  Their style has elements of chamber music with cello accompaniment and is sung both in Icelandic and English.  Here is a live and acoustic version of a couple of tracks from their 2012 EP Tvíeind:

The traditional folk music form of Iceland is the Rímur, a very old tradition of epic ballads, and one of its prime modern interpreters is Bára Grimsdóttir, who was born in Ryekjavik in 1960.  Here she performs the title track to her 2004 album Funi, which means fire in old Icelandic, together with her English partner Chris Foster:

Another proponent of the Rímur tradition is fisherman Steindór Andersen.  He is most noted for his collaborations with Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós.  Here's a song from their 2001 album Rímur called Á Ferð Til Breiðafjarðar Vorið 1922 (On a trip to Breiðafjarðar in the spring of 1922):

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Ásgeir Ásgeirsson combines Icelandic folk songs with influences from all over the world.  His mastery of a variety of string instruments such as the oud, tambura, saz baglama and bouzouki adds Eastern flavours to the folk songs of the far northwest of Europe.  He released a trilogy of albums collaborating with musicians from Turkey, Iran, Bulgaria and Greece as well as well known Icelandic folk singer Sigrídur Thorlacius.  This is a song from his 2017 Turkish inspired album, Two Sides of Europe called Hátíð fer að höndum ein:

That's it from Iceland for today.  we will continue exploring the music of Iceland next time.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual journey on my Tripline map.