Reykjavik Grapevine
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Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeDay One: Iceland Airwaves 2026 Reykjavík Grapevine Coverage The Reykjavík Grapevine presents our daily, comprehensive coverage of 2025 Iceland Airwaves. This year, we are pleased to introduce a number of new writers joining us as we try to document and…
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropePreview Of 2026 Airwaves The city’s best-known music festival is ramping up again. The lineup is fully declared, the venues announced. Our interest in Iceland Airwaves has waxed and waned.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeHelp Us Cover Airwaves In 2026: Grapevine and Iceland Music Feedback Program This year, we are continuing our Iceland Music Feedback Program. The goal is to recruit new writers to explore cultural journalism.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeIsland Life, Zen Buddhism And (Anti) Trip Hop My first impression of Howie B is through his cigarette butt. He points it at the camera, takes another hit, while sitting at his kitchen table. “Sorry I am a wee bit late.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeThe Month Of Saint Pete And Alaska 1867 He has rarely made our magazine, but Saint Pete is the talk of the town. On October 9, 2026, he will perform what he calls the Concert of the Century at N1 höllin.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeFrom The Depths Of The Money Trench As an editor, I frequent Reykjavík Record Shop, and I have repeatedly interviewed Jóhann Ágúst Jóhannsson, but never successfully. Instead, we get distracted.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeLive Review: Magnús Jóhann Shines, Bríet, GDRN and Birnir Charm Every creator, publisher, writer and musician over 30 seemed present at a packed Háskólabíó to watch composer, keyboardist, jazz musician, classicist, beat maker, film scorer, and master producer…
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeGlitchy Girly Computer Pop Produced and recorded entirely from the bedroom, Una Mist released her debut album KUÐUNGUR on September 1. Glitchy electronics, introspective lyrics and a DIY attitude.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeBergljót Brings Polish Tango To Gamla Bíó World-renowned Polish tango group Bandonegro comes to Gamla Bió Sunday night, September 13, for the first time at the invitation of Tangófélagið, the local tango club that meets twice a week on…
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeDeath, Taxes, And Þórir Georg When I read the song titles on Þórir Georg’s new release, Cheer Up, I worried he was having an emotional crisis.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeElectronic Music With Sledgehammers Arriving at the echolalia festival feels like entering a competition of who is best dressed against the rain.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeA Love Letter To Hamraborg One of the first concerts I attended when I had just moved to Iceland was in Catalína, Kópavogur. Together with an artistic crowd, some drunk men and downstairs gamblers, this concert provided my…
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeThe Unusual Foundation Of Reykjavík Music Founded by Pan Thorarensen and his father Óskar Thorarensen in 2009, the Extreme Chill Festival has become the dominant cultural force in the music scene.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeJoyful Reykjavík Return, Lament on What’s Happening Back Home David Byrne reinvented the concert film in 1984 with director Jonathan Demme. The Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense became iconic for its opening boombox providing the backbeat and the lead singer’s…
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeOrange Is the New Black: David Byrne at Harpa July 29, 2026 David Byrne is no stranger to our shores. He first appeared here in 1994, at which time he was still that guy from Talking Heads embarking on a solo career.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeA Siamese Drumkit, Trucks, and Random Men: Interview with Trailer Todd and Sucks To Be You, Nigel “This is going to be our best performance ever,” frontman Stirnir Kjartansson of local indie/emo math rock band Trailer Todd says confidently. “No..
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeHaving fun with your friends… during a solar eclipse, in front of 7,000 people Some of the best international and local electronic artists will be playing, including Björk herself.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeProfessionally DIY “The Akureyri music scene has completely shaped my personality,” Artistic Director of Mannfólkið Breytist Í Slím (MBS) Aldís Dagmar Erlingsdóttir tells me right before the festival starts.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeInnipúkinn: Saturday Night Review Verslunarmannahelgi falls on the first weekend of August. It is the biggest travel weekend of the Icelandic year. Everyone is camping or at a festival or both.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeBjörk: “I Have No Ambition To Be A Visual Artist” “If I could, I would do no interviews. All musicians are probably like that. They would just prefer to let the work talk,” says Björk, settling with her matcha latte into a chair in an empty…
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeSlaughterhouse-Turned-Music-Festival Hátíðni Returns Broken telephones, computer keyboards and answering machines hang from the ceiling above the main stage.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeSkrattar Gang Up With Bang Gang The devils of downtown Reykjavík rock have teamed up with art pop legend Barði Jóhannsson from the band Bang Gang to produce a stressfully sexy EP.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeOur Place In The Universe, Handed To You In The Dark I had no idea any of this existed. Sigur Rós had built some kind of sound installation in an Oxford basement, and I was apparently the last to know.
Reykjavik GrapevineEuropeThe End Of The Enfant Terrible It was the summer of 2003 and I, then editor of Grapevine, was walking through town with 58-year-old Megas, best known as Iceland’s leading lyricist.
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