Iceland Airwaves: Four artists to watch
November 09, 2018
The Iceland Airwaves music festival is happening this week, and The Current is excited to be part of it. Among the many exciting artists on the lineup this year, here are profiles of four. All will be playing our parties at Skuli, and three will be featured on our broadcasts with Mark Wheat.
Ásgeir
Even on first listen, Icelandic singer/songwriter Ásgeir's songs feel instantly recognizable. A familiar guitar riff underscores distant and longing vocals, tugging at the back of your mind at a memory you've all but forgotten. His sound evokes stylistic comparisons to many of his electric-folk contemporaries of the 2010s such as James Blake, Bon Iver, and James Vincent McMorrow.
Ásgeir rose to popularity in 2012 with his debut album Dyre i daueatogn. The album set numerous records on the Icelandic charts and secured Ásgeir's place among the country's most treasured musicians. The album rose to international acclaim when American rock musician John Grant (the Czars, Midlake) worked with Ásgeir to translating the album into English for its reissue in 2013. Translating the lyrics was a particularly significant task for this album as the words were written by the musician's 72-year-old father. The sentiments of an older generation passing through Ásgeir's tender vocals make for a moving combination. Ásgeir followed this released with his 2017 sophomore album Afterglow, which was met with similar international praise.
Though his name is known now by thousands in Iceland, Ásgeir grew up in near isolation. He was raised in Laugarbakki a town of a few dozen people over a two-hour drive from Reykjavik. The barrenness of this environment is made palpable in the broadness of Ásgeir's vocal melodies. Intertwined with his ability to craft songs with such openness is his uncanny way of creating music that is unflinchingly intimate. The electronic elements of Ásgeir's sound harmoniously mesh with his cozy folk songwriting sensibilities.
As one of Iceland's most prominent artists today, Ásgeir has toured extensively internationally and returns home to play two shows in intimate venues at Iceland Airwaves. This return to the festival follows his headlining performance at last year's Airwaves. Ásgeir plans to release his much anticipated third album in early 2019.
- Maddie Schwappach
Bedouine
Azniv Korkejian began making music in 2016 under the name Bedouine, as a play on the word bedouin, or nomad. Bringing together her talents as a singer-songwriter and professional sound designer, she creates elegantly simple folk songs with stripped-down instrumentation to draw attention to their essential elements. Her songs tell stories about solitude more than loneliness and her expression through music is personal, yet feels universally calming.
Amidst hectic headlines and anxiety of varying degrees prevalent in many people's realities, Bedouine's music softly offers reassurance in a time when the world is quite loud. Her pared-down blend of bossa-nova-style vocals, akin to someone like Astrud Gilberto, alongside country folk melodies make her music sound like a much-needed deep breath.
Perhaps this ability to offer perspective and quiet in the midst of chaos comes from her background of being constantly on the move. Bedouine was born in Aleppo, Syria, and spent her childhood in Saudi Arabia, before her family moved to America via a green card lottery win. She went on to live in Boston, Houston, Kentucky, and Georgia before settling in L.A., where she discovered a close-knit group of artists residing in Echo Park. In them she found a community of support and inspiration for furthering her musical pursuits. She also pulls from music knowledge such as her education studying sound design at SCAD and her job as a sound designer, for films like Judd Apatow's The Big Sick.
Her self-titled album, recorded on tape, shares observations and stories of advocating for oneself worth paired with potent introspection. The lyrics are insightful and the phrasing full of imagery that captures your attention and holds it. At times, Bedouine makes descriptive allusions to the many places in her past, such as constructing a beautiful soundscape to recall the noise on her grandmother's street in Aleppo in "Summer Cold." Using found samples and ambient beds, she re-created a memory in music. It's that sort of quiet and powerful intentionally that has been gaining Bedouine international acclaim. She'll continue her travels onward, and will be joining Father John Misty on tour until the end of November.
- Darby Ottoson
Milkywhale
The Icelandic duo Milkywhale, born out of a performative project for dance school, has evolved into one of the country's interesting emerging musical groups. The electronic pop team consists of performer Melkorka Sigrieur Magnusdottir and musician Arni Runar Hloeverssson. Melkorka studied dance in various European schools, where she was inspired to bring a vision of a choreographed concert to life. She got in touch with Icelandic musician Arni to accomplish this, and the two have been collaborating as Milkywhale ever since.
On their recently-released self-titled album, they deliver some sugary and infectious pop songs, while weaving in the narrative of Milkywhale, a lonely whale dancing alone in search of answers to life's big questions. Blending in pulsing beats and at least one eccentric whale call sample, Milkywhale tells stories of love, sea life, trampoline exercises, and more.
The duo have a reputation for packing a lot into their live performances, both musically and aesthetically. Melkorka performs solo onstage, with plenty of accompanying visuals and impressive choreography. Their fantastical soundscape, enhanced by Melkorka's contemporary dance moves, breaks down the barrier between a concert and a performance art piece.
"If you want to, you can find a narrative, but if not, you can watch it like a concert," Melkorka has said. The execution of this unique project seems to reflect values of boldness and individuality that arise from making music on a volcanic and isolated island bordering the Arctic Circle. Milkywhale experiment with extremes and pulls it off.
Since their debut at the 2015 Iceland Airwaves festival, they have garnered national and international attention. Even the prime minister of Iceland, Katrin Jakobsdottir, featured Milkywhale on her special Spotify playlist celebrating 20 years of Iceland Airwaves. Outside of their home country, they've toured with their own choreographed "pop-opera" and appeared at festivals around the world.
- Darby Ottoson
Soccer Mommy
Nashville-based Sophie Allison has been making music under the moniker Soccer Mommy since she started recording songs in her bedroom in high school. Since she began to play guitar at the age of six, she has not stopped creating music. From releasing songs for fun on her Tumblr, to posting Tascam recordings on Bandcamp, to now a full-length studio album, Allison's music has matured alongside her. Her first studio album, Clean, was released in March 2018 on Fat Possum Records. Now 21 years old, Soccer Mommy has garnered ample amounts of critical and popular praise for her honest lyricism and her ability to effortlessly weave together a memorable melody.
Soccer Mommy's music still rings true with the intimacy of her DIY roots. Clean centers around expertly-written guitar riffs and lyrics that speak to a universal experience through highly personalized narratives. Her guitar styling ranges in influence from soft and earnest strumming to more raucous hooks reminiscent of one of Allison's all-time favorite musicians, Avril Lavigne.
Make no mistake: Allison's lyricism is far from the delicate stylings that are often associated with her genre. On the first track of Clean, her clear voice slowly delivers the lines "Got your mouth all clean/ Left me drowning/ Once you picked me out your bloody teeth."
Other songs on the album tell stories of similarly unsparing characters. "Cool" depicts a girl so cool "she'll break you down and eat you whole." On a similarly anthemic hit "Your Dog," Allison sings about wanting to be free from the confines of a constricting relationship, declaring "I'm not a prop for you to use." Not shying away from brutal metaphors and unflinching portrayals of growing up, Soccer Mommy stands out in the indie rock scene with her ability to elegantly juxtapose a myriad of themes alongside one another.
With a seemingly non-stop tour schedule, alongside the likes of Slowdive, Paramore, Kacey Musgraves, Mitski, Stephen Malkmus, and so many more, Soccer Mommy's career is surrounded by an infectious sort of forward momentum. The young musician has already encountered the type of milestones that performers much her senior aspire towards, and her relentless ability to create poises her for even more success in the years to come.
- Maddie Schwappach