Stage 33, Iceland

Stage 33, Iceland and i'm nearing the end of my eurosonic trip, what a place to finish, land of fire and ice, Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean just south of the Arctic Circle, which passes through the small island of Grímsey off Iceland's northern coast. With just 300,000 inhabitants (a medium sized city), its tiny just 0,06 % of the EU population. When humans arrived(864 AD), birch forest and woodland probably covered 25-40% of Iceland’s land area. But soon the settlers started to remove the trees and forests to create fields and grazing land, almost totally destroying the great resource. Btw the old english for birch is beorc thats bjork in icelandic. Well after a millenium of their mainland brethern from skandinavia formally running the show they do very well themselves these days.
The reason we stop over at Iceland here is of course Bjork,  she put Iceland on the map of the musicworld, in her wake lots of great artists came to the fore that might have gone unnoticed otherwise. So what is it that this small group of people produce so much great music, well isolation-interdependance, long cold winters- indoor activities , a love for singing and making music together between the storytelling all this surely laid a solid base for youngsters to explore their skills on, naturally there's sex and alcohol aswell, but above all the beautiful awe inspiring landscape that surrounds them, well ...

Obviously i have to start this Iceland post with Bjork a concert registration ripped from the DVD, followed by a great side project from another great icelandic composer Johan Johansson, Apparat Organ Quartet. Gisli has been called the icelandic Beck which is almost obvious but he does it with gusto and some great lyrics aswell. Gus Gus got picked up by 4AD, eager to pick another Icelandic cherry, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson a prolific artist into some ancient religion aswell, hardly surprising Genesis P is a mate , his music scores however are beautiful drifting like clouds over the icelandic country and sea sides. Finally Emilíana Torrini-davidsdottir- so you catch the drift, a real icelandic beauty nice sensual voice place her between Bjork and Stina Nordenstam . Id say check em out, i have full downloads via divshare over at rho-xsss.

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Bjork - Cambridge ( 98 )
Apparat Organ Quartet - I (02 )
Gisli - How about that ? (04)
Gusgus - Polydistortion (96)
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson - Children Of Nature, Angels of the Universe ( 96, 01)
Emilíana Torrini - Love In The Time Of Science (99)

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Bjork - Cambridge ( 98 * 375mb)

Björk's musical career began when she was 11, studying classical piano in elementary school. One of her instructors sent a recording of Björk singing to RÚV, then the only radio station in Iceland. The recording was broadcasted on radio nationally; after hearing it, a representative of the record label Fálkinn contacted Björk with a record contract offer. She recorded her eponymous debut in 1977, it featured several Icelandic children's songs and covers of popular songs such as the Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill", sung in Icelandic. In 1980 she graduated from music school. In 1981, she and bassist Jakob Magnússon formed another band Tappi Tíkarrass and released an extended single, "Bítið Fast í Vítið" in the same year. Their album Miranda was released in 1983. Next stop, the gothic rocklike KUKL ("sorcery" in Icelandic), toured with Crass, and Flux of Pink Indians in the UK, they released 2 albums, The Eye in 1984, and Holidays in Europe in 1986, both on Crass Records. The band dissolved , fused with the surrealist group Medusa and was reborn as The Sugarcubes, more on them in my next post, in 1992 The Sugarcubes dissolved

Bjork found her self in London, she already had entered the UK musicscene, singing 2 tracks on 808 state's excell album, Qmart and Ooops, she met up with the then hot producer Nellie Hooper and together recorded her solo debut album, Debut (93) , a mix of songs Björk had written since she was a teenager as well as newer lyrical collaborations with Hooper. It was named album of the year by NME, at the 1994 Brit Awards Björk won the awards for Best International Female and Best International newcomer. Well she became involved with the indie-dance and movie scene, too much re recall here Post (95) and Telegram (96), here creative breaktru Homogenic (97) followed by Selmasongs (00) the soundtrack for the movie Dancer in the Dark, for which she won best actress at Cannes. It had been a dazzling decade for Bjork

In 2001 Vespertine was released, not in the spring as was her wish but the distribution apparatus said no, so she launched it anyway during an live concert broadcast on the net.Well her megastar status grew some more making a lasting appearance at the oscars (2001), and the opening of the olympics 2004 singing Oceania, and a nice platform to promote her voices only album Medulla, Army of me remixes (2005) was released to support the 2004 tsunami victims, later that year the soundtrack to Drawing Restraint , her partner Matthew Barney "s movie (a contemporary media artist working with film, video installations, sculpture, photography and drawing), with whom she has a daughter Ísadóra. Greatest hits albums, boxsets , remasters and concert, docu, and clips dvd's , 11 in all thusfar were released. Too much to tell about this diva, wiki has a nice compilation, check it out here !

One of the earlier DVD releases was recorded in Cambridge, 2nd December 1998, featuring The Icelandic String Octet, and Mark Bell (LFO), a very close concert, balancing the abstract electronics by Mark Bell, the strings from the octet with her beautiful voice.



01 - Intro (2:24)
02 - Hunter (4:38)
03 - Come To Me (4:28)
04 - All Neon Like (5:11)
05 - You've Been Flirting Again (3:22)
06 - Isobel (5:21)
07 - Immature (2:56)
08 - Play Dead (3:58)
09 - Alarm Call (3:20)
10 - Human Behaviour (4:00)
11 - Bachelorette (5:21)
12 - Hyperballad (4:42)
13 - Pluto (4:26)
14 - Anchor Song (4:13)
15 - Jóga (5:56) cambridge clip


Bjork @ Base
Bjork @ MySpace
lots of Bjork @ YouTube
Bjork @ Amazon

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Apparat Organ Quartet - I (02 ^ 315mb)

The Apparat Organ Quartet was founded in 1999 by Jóhann Jóhannsson, a noted Icelandic composer and musician. The band, 4 keyboard players and a drummer, plays several different organs and uses other devices such as a vocoder, has a sound reminiscent somewhat of German band Kraftwerk. Apparat, though based in Reykjavík, has toured throughout Europe, but thusfar only released this album in 2002. Main man Jóhann Jóhannsson however has been busy releasing several works of acclaim under his own name.



1 - Romantika (4:42) great clip
2 - Stereo Rock & Roll (4:17)
3 - The Anguish of Space-Time Voc-Adda Ingólfsdóttir (6:10)
4 - Cruise Control (3:38)
5 - Ondula Nova (5:25)
6 - Global Capital Voc-Adda Ingólfsdóttir (5:21) clip
7 - Seremonia (5:00)
8 - Charlie Tango # 2 (7:23)
9 - Sofðu Litla Vél (5:29)

Apparat Organ Quartet @ MySpace
Apparat Organ Quartet @ Amazon uk

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Gisli - How about that ? (04 ^ 251mb))

Gisli is a solo musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist now operating in Oslo, Norway. His brand of pop-rock has been likened to, amongst others, Beck, more specifically, Gisli is likened to the Mellow Gold-era Beck; a creature that brought us acoustic hip-hop and dry humour along the lines of Loser and Soul Suckin' Jerk, but he lists his own heroes as people like Eels, loads of hip-hop and Leonard Nimoys Spock. He's led the sort of life youd expect from someone whose parents had the flash of inspiration (or madness) to give him a name which means Hostage. Hes only started thinking about that since people started picking up on it in England, and now frets that its weird. A lot about Gisli is weird, although we wont give him any more grounds to over-think things.

"My father was a fisherman, who would return from trips to Germany with records by the Beatles. From then on it was a barmy adventure from his dads record collection straight into Iron Maiden by age six. Later, he got into unlikely bedfellows Duran Duran, David Bowie and hip-hop. Its all kinda what my album sounds like I guess! " he grins



01 - How about that (3:00)
02 - Straight to hell (3:27)
03 - Go get 'em tiger (3:28)
04 - Worries (2:17)
05 - The day it all went wrong (3:52)
06 - I don't fight (3:48)
07 - TV is the devil (3:04)
08 - End of my ropes (3:29)
09 - Passing out (3:07)
10 - Can you make me right (3:21)
11 - I'm trying (3:43)
12 - Mind games (3:27)
13 - You and me (2:36)

Gisli @ Base
Gisli @ MySpace
Gisli @ Amazon

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Gusgus - Polydistortion ( 96 * 475mb)

Widely acclaimed as an avant-garde group of musicians and performers, Gus Gus mixes together different mediums to create a unique musical sound. Their trademark style has an ethereal quality, combined with funky bass, drum sounds and the intelligent use of technology. Like their fellow national, Björk, Gus Gus has developed a sound that is all their own: innovative and challenging, yet accessible and even dance-floor friendly.

Gus Gus as an electronic soul band formed in 1995. A short brake in a making of the short film "Pleasure" made it possible for the first Gus Gus self-titled album to be born. In 1996 Gus Gus got a deal with 4AD. This collaboration gives birth to 3 albums, "Polydistortion", "This Is Normal" and finally "Gus Gus vs T-World". After the This is Normal album the filmmaking arm of GusGus, Kjartansson and Árni Þorgeirsson, split off to form the production company "Celebrator", nowadays known as "Arni & Kinski", which has produced award-winning advertisements and videos. A few former members have gone solo, most notably though Emilíana Torrini, who was replaced by Earth aka Urður Hákonardóttir.

During the 4AD years, Gus Gus starts touring massively, stirring the music world with their powerful live-show. In 2002 Gus Gus made their 4th studio album "Attention". Their music is eclectic, and although primarily classified with techno, trip-hop and house music, they have experimented with numerous other styles. They have also remixed several famous artists. Recently they released their latest Forever .



01 - Oh (Edit) (1:17)
02 - Gun (6:08)
03 - Believe (7:18)
04 - Polyesterday (4:52)
05 - Barry (5:57)
06 - Cold Breath '79 (6:42)
07 - Why? (4:04)
08 - Remembrance (8:06)
09 - Is Jesus Your Pal? (3:34)
10 - Purple (8:01)
11 - Polybackwards (5:00)

12 - Cold Breath '79 (Husmix) (5:02)
13 - Believe (16B Remix) (7:23)
14 - Believe (LFO Remix) (5:11)
15 - Polydistortion (8:06)

Gus Gus @ Base
Gus Gus @ MySpace
Gus Gus @ YouTube

Gus Gus @ Amazon

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Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson - Children Of Nature, Angels Of The Universe (96, 01 ^ 387mb)

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson was a pioneer in the use of computers when composing music and cleared the path for new ideas in recording and arrangements. He has worked on ambitious, experimental and original projects with various musicians, such as Psychic TV, Current 93, Sigur Rós, Steindór Andersen and Eivør Pálsdóttir.

He's been recording with Frostbite (1993), Hafler Trio-(H3ÖH) 93, Grindverk 97-99, apart from his soundtracks composing, he's become an expert on norske myths, paganism, from his interest on magic and the Reich's orgone therapy, for which he created a center, to the Ásatrú Association (old pagan Norse religion) from which he's been a member since his sixteenth, and which he has been ordained head of 5 years ago.

Hilmarsson, with over 20 soundtracks to his name is Iceland's most prolific film composer. In 1995 he won European Film Composer of the Year for his work on the Oscar nominated 'Children of Nature', for which he also collaborated with Fridriksson and 'Angels of the Universe' writer, Einar Mar Gudmundsson. On Children of Nature, he makes full use of keyboards, electronics and samplers, supplemented highly effectively by strings and percussion. The result, which he dedicated as a "commemoration of those I have loved and lost", is an accessible but profoundly moving set of short pieces which have a melancholic yet often uplifting feel to them, this is superior soundtrack music rather than classical music per se. It blends rather well with another soundtrack he did for another Fridriksson movie 'Angels of the Universe'
about a man's descent into despair and schizophrenia, one might expect a pretty moody score, and that's indeed what we have here, brooding, wistful soundscapes using mostly very organic-sounding keyboards and electronics, with melodic themes provided by a bit of classical guitar and violin. The first fifteen atracks are by Hilmarsson, Sigur Rós contributes the last two tracks of the score * not here but available at Rho-Xsss.



01 - Ars Moriendi (5:54)
02 - Charon (2:29)
03 - Sudurgata (3:26)
04 - Farm (3:15)
05 - Snatis's Death (1:24)
06 - Journey (4:07)
07 - Escape (1:28)
08 - Coffin (2:04)
09 - Ascension (4:08)
10 - Titles (3:12)
11 - Aerophilia (3:20)
12 - Pretty Angels (5:06)
Angels of the Universe
13 - Approach / Dream (3:07)
14 - Memory (1:56)
15 - The Black Dog And The Scottish Play (1:23)
16 - Degradation (1:19)
17 - Over The Bend (4:18)
18 - Colours (1:56)
19 - Journey To The Underworld (1:46)
20 - Shave (0:35)
21 - On The Road (2:28)
22 - Another Memory (1:47)
23 - Relapse (1:23)
24 - Coma (0:53)
25 - Schiller In China (2:52)
26 - Helpless (1:08)
27 - Te Morituri... (2:50)

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson @ Amazon


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Emilíana Torrini - Love In The Time Of Science (99 ^ 453mb)

Emiliana Torrini Davidsdottir, grew up in a town near Reykjavík, her italian father owns and operates a well-known Italian restaurant in Iceland where she used to waitress Emiliana joined a choir at the age of 7 in which she sang soprano until she went to opera school at the age of 15. She became well-known in Iceland in 1994, when, aged 17 she won the song competition of junior colleges in Iceland, singing "I Will Survive".

From 1994 to 1996 she released three albums in Iceland, Spoon (with a band of the same name), Crouçie d'Où La, and Merman. She has been a member of Icelandic artist collective GusGus, and contributed vocals to several songs on their debut Polydistortion (1996).

Her breakthru came with this, her 1999 " Love in the Time of Science" (produced by Tears for Fears' Roland Orzabal). In 2002
Torrini was able to sing Gollum's Song, the end theme of Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when fellow Icelander Björk backed out due to pregnancy. In 2005 she released the album Fisherman's Woman featuring the singles "Sunnyroad" and "Heartstopper." In 2006, Torrini was nomimated for the Icelandic Music Awards held in Reykjavík in four categories: Pop Album of the Year, Song of the Year (Sunnyroad), Singer of the Year and Video of the Year (Sunnyroad, She won all except Song of the Year.



01 - To Be Free (3:25)
02 - Wednesday's Child (3:54)
03 - Baby Blue (4:05)
04 - Dead Things (4:25)
05 - Unemployed In Summertime (3:46)
06 - Easy (3:21)
07 - Fingertips (3:43)
08 - Telepathy (4:00)
09 - Tuna Fish (3:12)
10 - Summerbreeze (3:48)
11 - Sea People (1:12)
Xs
12 - Baby Blue (Ray and Christian mix) (7:30)
13 - Easy (Tore Johansson videomix) (3:06)
14 - Fingertips (Mice Parade remix) (4:42)
15 - Slowblow (2:03)
16 - I Really Loved Harold (3:48)
17 - Ruby Tuesday (4:49)
18 - Tomorrow (3:48)
19 - Merman (3:03)
20 - Frank Mills (2:17)
21 - Gollum's Song (from OST Two Towers) (5:48)

Emiliana @ Base
Emiliana @ MySpace
Emiliana @ Amazon

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* All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !