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Sprengjuhöllin debut full-length a treat

SOUNDING ICELANDIC

Mykael Sopher

Winnipeg, MB

I have this theory about Iceland: there’s a magical music factory, somewhere in the Highlands, that perpetually churns out great bands. While I’ve never been to Iceland, I plan on travelling there in the near future and when I do, I promise to conduct

a thorough investigation. For now, this will remain an unexamined assumption.

The source behind my theory is the pop-rock (and some folk!) band Sprengjuhöllin, yet another remarkable musical act from Iceland. Sung entirely in Icelandic, the band’s debut record, Tímarnir okkar, is a wonderfully realized collection of melodic pop songs, playful folk numbers, and touching piano ballads.

Calgary art show displays Icelandic works

Sextet of artists take Cowtown by storm

What do six Icelandic artists do when they hit Calgary, Alberta, a metropolis right in the middle of Canada’s great western cow country? They find the biggest western apparel store they can find, of course, and dude themselves up cowboy-style in
ten-gallon hats, tall-boots, embroidered shirts and jeans. Then it’s off to the tiny Truck Gallery, where the art opening to mark their compelling, eclectic and very Icelandic show is being held.

The show is called Sundogs, and it’s a part of the Núna (now) festival, which is headquartered in Winnipeg and is now in its second year. The Núna (now) mandate is to encourage, and if need be to forge, creative confluences between the artists of Iceland and those in North America who are merely descended from Icelanders.

Messages from the ones that passed on

ÞJÓÐFRÆÐI ICELANDIC FOLKLORE

Björk Bjarnadóttir

Hollow Water, MB

There are many reasons why the dead contact the living in the Icelandic folktales. These people are the ones that have died out on the land, drowned, or other- wise lost their lives, and the locations off their bodies is unknown to the living. These spirits often contact their closest family or friends through a dream, and there they announce, often in a poem about how they lost their life, how their bodies look and where their bodies are located, and they also talk about where they have gone since dying.

When people disappeared and couldn’t be found, this kind of contact was often the only lead that living people could go after, and often it was proved that what the spirits told the living through dreams was true.