Scandinavian Culture Viewed, Reviewed & Interviewed
2005.11.28
— Music
“Swedish songwriter proves himself one of the year’s most promising new talents with an indie pop concoction that owes as much to the Avalanches and Phil Spector as to Morrissey and Magnetic Fields.” – Pitchfork
“Jens Lekman is a lovable goofball.” – AMG
“He’s got that lovely combination of a wry mind and a yearning heart which can bring tragi-(romantic) comedy to slicing off your fingertip when your girlfriend throws her arms around you as you’re cutting an avocado, and cuddly warmth to a misfiring new couple thrown together in a cold Swedish winter.” – SMH
Oh You’re So Silent Jens, Lekman’s new album, is definitely worth a listen.
Links: Jens Lekman Homepage, Secretly Canadian, Service.
2005.11.21
— Music
Marie Boine Persen is a musician from the Norwegian Sápmi (Sameland or Finnmark). Mixing her native way of singing (yoik) with jazz, folk and a bit of rock, she became the cultural ambassador of her people with her breakthrough release Gula Gula. Mari Boine has released about 9 albums, if not more – the latest Gávcci Jahkejudgu (“Eight Seasons”, which is actually the number of seasons in arctic regions) in 2002. No much news since – it’s a bit hard to find information about her. Some websites:
Fighting for their cultural heritage and more rights in Scandinavia, like their far cousins from Nunavut in Canada, Sámi people have their land – the UNESCO recognized Laponian Area – shared between Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia. There’s an interesting article on Wikipedia about the situation.
2005.11.18
— Music
I don’t really feel like writing about Sigur Rós, who played a wonderful concert a couple of days ago in Paris. It was actually wonderful, but most of the songs were kind of too similar to the album. And many fans share this opinion: it was a decent gig but not the best (have a look at the Sigur Rós forum if you’re interested).
I was actually much more impressed by this charming support band, Amína. Amína is made up of four young Icelandic girls, who play a variety of weird (glasses, electronic devices, musical saw) or classical (strings, guitar, keyboard) instruments. They are touring both as Sigur Rós’ support act, and their string section. Even if you arrive late at the concert and miss the first part, you’ll still have the chance to see them. Lucky you.
Their music is mostly instrumental, reminiscent of Múm obviously, and the best moments of the gig were probably when the beat made them dance, smile, or even laugh (María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir is quite funny and charming, to this respect – she’s on the left on the picture). Ok, I would have loved to post a link to a mp3 to share this new discovery with you, but I just can’t find it anymore. You can visit this Boomkat webpage, though, and stream three of their songs. And you can visit their official website (unfortunately poor and which doesn’t work with IE, apparently) and an unofficial one, where you’ll find an interesting interview with the girls.
2005.11.16
— Music
Stéphane, did you know what Kiss means in Swedish? Pee. So, Pee, and his fellow Poo (Bajs) are invading Sweden’s kids bedrooms big time. Nothing disgusting with that though: these two former rejects are back from the restroom in the form of super cuddly lovable plush, thanks to designer Emma Megitt.
Presented at FutureDesignDays Expo last year, the toys meet success in Scandinavia and start to be sold in USA and Japan. More info on the dedicated website, where it’s possible to buy the set of plush for a mere € 32 ($ 38). The perfect gift for these holidays. There’s even some merchandising. Panties. Subtle. (Still cute.)
2005.11.14
— Music
Not much more to tell about Sigur Rós. Except they are coming very soon in USA after a pretty big European tour.
More infos:
2005.11.12
— Music
Brennivín (pronounce bretnaveen /bren:ivIn/, thanks Ljóni). When I tried this for the first time, some years ago, I found it quite pleasant (I was also in an advanced state of drunkness). I scared my friends that was expecting me to rather puke and they made me stop drinking that. Indeed, according to some of them, this is more a poison that tastes like shit than a kind of liquor… Some facts: its nickname is Black Death, I read somewhere “Give it to an alcoholic: it may help them quit”, and anyway, Brennivín is better with roten shark.
Just like Andrew over Slashfood, I really thought that every Scandinavian countries had their vodka. Including Iceland with its Brennivín. How wrong was I: this liquor is anything but vodka and Iceland never produced any vodka. Well, until now:
Reyka Vodka is Iceland’s first ever vodka. The word derives form the Icelandic word for steam; it is geothermal steam that powers the distillery. They also use perhaps the purest water yet used in the production of vodka, drawn from a 4,000 year old lava field it is so pure that it requires no treatment or demineralization, which most other distillers have to do. Apparently the water used for Reyka is so pure that Volvic has a content of dissolved solids that’s five times higher than Reyka’s, Evian’s level is nearly 15 times higher.
Sounds good. More about it: Reyka Vodka website.
2005.11.09
— Music
Believe me, I’d rather live somewhere else at the moment. Well, I know we shouldn’t take it too dramatically, I know that the press is focusing too much on those recent french events (I don’t dare calling them “riots”, even though they partially are), but anyway, they make me kind of nervous and anxious. To cap it all, I discovered yesterday morning that the tyre of my danish bike was flat. Not because it was too old (it was actually brand new), not because I had ridden the bike to some lousy place… just because “someone” had used some kind of knife to cut it… How funny it must be… So, to cheer up a little bit in spite of this hostile environment, I visited my favourite websites (those websites that make me feel like leaving France and moving to Iceland, for instance).
On the excellent Iceland Weather Report blog, I read that Arnaldur Indriðason won the Golden Dagger award for the best British crime novel of the year. Arnaldur Indriðason won it for his novel Silence of the Grave. Congratulations, Arny.
And for those of you interested in Icelandic literature, don’t forget to visit this website run by the Reykjavik City Library. You’ll find there many interesting details about Icelandic contemporary literature, as well as texts written by the authors themselves: look at this one, if you’re curious about Arnaldur Indriðason, his work and his views on icelandic literature.
On the almost-as-excellent Iceland Review Online, I read that Emiliana Torrini was number 45 on the annual Vogue List (British edition). Vogue describes the list as the “definite top 100: the trends, the people, the places and our predictions for the year ahead”. Emiliana was also featured in the August 29th issue of the US magazine the New Yorker.
2005.11.07
— Music
If you have ever watched a movie, then you’ve probably seen this guy. Peter Ingvar Rolf Storm (his real name) is often the bad guy in Hollywood action flicks (Satan, no less, in Constantine). Even though they are not always great movies, the list is quite impressing: Bad Boys, Armageddon, The Brothers Grimm, Minority Report, Windtalkers, Jurassic Park, …
Expatriated in the ’90s in Japan then in the USA, he is now one of the very few Europeans to play in American big productions. He even got to have some better and bigger roles (Birth, Chocolat, The Million Dollar Hotel). The character I prefer though is still Jeff, in Dancer in the Dark.
2005.11.04
— Music
“Detective fiction from Scandinavia has been fashionable in Britain for some time. The trend was set in 1994 with Peter Hí¸eg’s Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow. This Danish thriller radiated an unfamiliar polar chill, but it was Mankell who truly opened the door for Nordic crime. He has been followed into English translation by other Scandinavian thriller writers such as Karin Fossum and Eva-Marie Liffner, Norwegian and Swedish respectively.”
That’s what you could read in the Guardian two years ago in a long article about the Swedish writer Henning Mankell (you can find this article online here).
As for me, I guess I read every books by Mankell published down here and a friend of mine has started studying swedish for one reason: she felt like reading Mankel novels in swedish… Probably because there’s a special atmosphere in those books, as well as in other crime novels by scandinavian authors such as Åke Edwardson or Arnaldur Indridason…
You’ll find an interesting article about those nordic novels on this website.
