Allt er hljótt - Our own Christmas song

With on only one day to go until our annual Christmas Concert in Fríkirkjan we thought that we should share our Christmas song Allt er hljótt.



The song was written and recorded within a week in December of 2009. We did not have time to go to a professional studio, so we recorded every bit of the song within the premises of Ragnars bedroom using a single recording mic connected to a laptop. We gave the raw recording to our friend Ólafur Arnalds who then did wonders with the mix.

Christmas concert in Fríkirkjan, Reykjavík

Once again it's time four our annual Christmas concert in Fríkirkjan in Reykjavík.

It will take place on December 23rd at 10pm.

As well as our own compositions we will perform traditional Icelandic Christmas songs that are dear to us, some which are less often heard. All the songs will be re-arranged for the occasion to fit Árstíðirs unusual instrumentation and sound.

This is the third year in a row that we perform our Christmas concert Fríkirkjan. The first concert back in 2008 was recorded and a selection of the songs were released on our EP: Live in Fríkirkjan. It was mixed by our friend and genius Ólafur Arnalds.


Scarborough Fair, performed in Fríkirkjan in 2008.

Photo from our concert in Fríkirkjan in 2009.

Tickets are already on sale. Go get yours here! We look forward to see you, it's going to be a magical night.

Surprise gig at Norræna húsið in Reykjavík

On Saturday we performed a surprise concert at Norræna húsið, the Nordic House in Reykjavík. It was the first time we appeared publicly in Iceland since our return from Russia and Finland.

The gig was a part of a concert series called The Advent Calender of the Nordic House.

Everyday at 12.34 in the afternoon until Christmas there is an exciting Icelandic act playing there, and people don't know which one will be playing that day.

The Nordic House in Reykjavík was designed by the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and the only thing surpassing it's beauty are the acoustics in there. We played entirely acoustic, and were surprised ourselves by how good we sounded.

The poster for the concert series.

Moscow, last days

We spent our last two days in Moscow sightseeing and giving interviews.

We met journalist Roman Shevchenko who wrote an article about us in a newspaper in Sochi (the host of the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games), and with Dimitrij Urupin who did an interview with us for Russian radio.

The latter also invited us to his home and we showed our appreciation by singing for him in his livingroom.
By the end of the second day we said goodbye to our manager Masha and our dear friend Marjana. We took a night-train from Moscow to Helsinki where we caught our flight back home to Iceland the next day.

3 videos from Moscow

Here are three videos from our gig in Moscow. The videos are shot from different angles by people in the audience. We were told that Moscow would be the hardest city to play in because it is such a big one, with so much going on all the time that new bands often get lost in the media noise, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. We loved the way the people in the audience communicated with us towards the end of the set, calling out their favorite songs, and asking that we introduce each band member.

Ages


Síðasta Kveðjan


Til Hennar

Moscow

This being the last gig of the tour, and the biggest, we were very excited. The show went down in the Central House of Artists in central Moscow, which is an impressive building by any standard.
Backstage between sets we were interviewed by O2TB, a Russian TV channel that reaches 12 million viewers in 210 cities all across Russia. O2TB also filmed the whole concert.

We've received a lot of photos and videos from people in the audience, and we would be happy to hear from more people. If you have photos, please share them with us!

After the show we broke a personal record in cd sales and spent quite some time signing autographs and cd's, and talking to the crowd.

Hallgrímur and Karl went to the train station shortly afterwards because they had to catch a plane to New York to play with Bloodgroup. The rest of the band retired back to our hostel to get some rest.

(Photos (©) by Linda Iliste)

Dubna

(Photo (©) by Sergey Kolier)

We got of the train early in the morning in a town called Tver. The train stopped for less than a minute, so we literally had to throw our bags out of the train.

We were picked up by our contact Iouri, who drove us to Dubna where we spent the day prior to soundcheck with our hosts who treated us to generous amounts of delicious Russian cuisine.

(Photo (©) by Sergey Kolier)

More than 300 people attended our show in the Hall of City Administration, where we played two long sets (nearly two hours). After the show we spent a long time talking to the audience, signing CD's and t-shirts. We nearly sold out or merchandise.

(Photos (©) by Sergey Kolier)

The night ended with a big feast together with our hosts, with music and lots of food. We're really looking forward to returning to Dubna next year.

(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

St Peterburg, day 2

(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

After sightseeing in the most beautiful city in the world, we went for soundcheck at the MOD Club. We were booked for a concert hall within the complex with a capacity for 400 people, but were informed upon arrival that the hall was undergoing renovation, so we had to play inside the adjacent bar. The explanation was offered to us with a smile: “This is Russia.”

With over 300 in attendance, the bar was bursting at the seams. When it was time for us to start, the crowd of people all surged to get closer to the stage, and for a moment we found ourselves in the interesting position of not physically being able to make it through to the stage to play.

But by the time we blazed a trail and started the show, the tight space and surging crowd was made up for in spades with a heartwarming response.

(Photo (©) by Sokolov Roman)

Our wonderful friend Marjana.

(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

We were supported by the incredible Marjana and her band iamthemorning. Their music really blew our minds, and we hope to play together with them more in the future.
You can check out their music HERE.

After the gig we rushed to the train station for a night train to Dubna.

Our amazing manager Masha.
(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

St Petersburg - the first night

After visiting a local brewery in St Petersburg, Marjana, Alexei, Mikhail and the people from our fan-club went with us to the canal to watch the drawbridges open, and the ships sail by - a spectacular sight indeed.

The night was beautiful but cold. Before returning to the warmth of the bars, we stopped by the Winter Palace and sang of the song Find the Cost of Freedom.

St Petersburg, Russia

(Photos (©) by Linda Iliste)

Our manager and a driver picked us up in Helsinki and drove us to St Petersburg. We were delayed on the border between Finland and Russia, and were two hours late for our appointment with our fan-club in St Petersburg.

But the people were patient, and we were warmly welcomed on arrival. After two hours of chatting and drinking, we went bar hopping in St Petersburg with our new amazing friends.

(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

Helsinki, Finland

The first gig of the tour went down at a rock club in downtown Helsinki named Bar Loose.

In a generous backstage lounge sporting posters of Iggy Pop we found a fridge filled with Finnish beer. That managed to compensate the fact that they had misspelled our name on the billboard outside.

The crowd was great, and our host Toni even more so. We now have ample reasons to come back to Finland.

In the airport

...aaaand we're off.

With no sleep, high expectations, and good spirits, the band made it to the airport in the middle of the night. We checked in our instruments - everyone except Hallgrímur, who ordered an extra flight seat for his cello (imagine that: the cello gets its own on-board entertainment system!) - went through security, and had a beer to mark the occasion.

Man, we are really excited about this. While Jón, Daniel and Hallgrímur went away to shop presents for our manager Maria, the rest of us decided to post the first video blog.
Enjoy:



Tourblog 1 from Arstidir the Band on Vimeo.

Tonight we have a gig in Helsinki at a bar called Bar Loose. Here is the facebook event.
Cheers!

Copenhagen, Saturday

Early in the morning we crossed the bridge between Sweden and Denmark and went to Copenhagen. After spending some sun-soaked hours busking and on the main shopping street Strøget, we made our way to Café Blasen.

Blasen is a bar owned and run by Icelanders, and is frequented by Icelanders living in Copenhagen. Sure enough, when the gig started the house was packed with Icelanders, and we found ourselves talking to the audience in our mother tongue.

We did a purely acoustic gig, which was a challenge as the boozers are often loud on Saturday nights. But much to our delight we received the audience’s undivided attention, and were met with an incredible response.

Since it was our last gig of the tour we played a longer set than usual, and did several encores.

Needless to say, the night ended with one hell of a party.

(Photos (©) by Höddi)

Malmö, Friday

The day started with a cold swim in Dalby Stenbrott, a lake situated in a birch forest close to Torna Hällestad. One band member – the same one that fell out of a tree earlier on the tour – cut his leg on a rock, adding to his list of injuries.

After driving to Malmö to sound check at Babel, we killed time before the gig in an adjacent park, sipping Sangria in the sun. There we met with a producer who is working on a musical installation set to take place in an old mine in Sweden next year, and wants Árstíðir to play a key role.

Jonas Schwartz opened the show at Babel for us, as he did in Gothenburg, and it was nice to meet him and the rest of the guys again. We really liked playing at Babel – the venue was made to look like an old church, boasting an enormous stage and state-of-the-art PA system. The engineer did an amazing job with the sound, and the audience responded warmly.

After the gig, we drove back to our basecamp in Torna Hällestad and rounded off the day with a few beers.

Torna Hällestad, Thursday

We went to Torna Hällestad which is a small paradise-like village, situated outside Lund in south Sweden, and stayed at a beautiful house belonging Birgitta Göransson (Linda’s mom).

We we’re joined on the trip by Peter from Adore Music. Upon arrival in Torna Hällestad, he fired up the stove and cooked some amazing Thai Food.

This day was originally scheduled to be our only day off. The plan was to do a little composing and get rest before the last leg of the tour. But when we learned about the local Pub “Tolvan” we could not resist playing a gig there.

We were greeted by the friendly people of Torna Hällestad, and a sign in the bar saying “Icelanders drink for free”, written in Icelandic (!) The night was close to magic, and after long set and heart-warming response from the crowd, we entered the sauna which the good people from Tolvan had prepared for us.

Special thanks to Kerstin and Jens, for making this night memorable!

Gothenburg, Wednesday

When we arrived in Gothenburg, the weather was breath-takingly beautiful. We played in the Trädgårn’n garden where we had trees and a fountain within our eye-reach while performing. We saw a lot of familiar faces in the crowd that had attended our concert at Pustervik the week before.

We were joined by Linda Iliste, journalist. She is going to ride with us in the tour bus for the reminder of the tour, and write about it for Zero Music Magazine.

After the show we had a photo-session with Marie-Louise Karlsson in the harbor.

In the evening we then went to a panoramic bar by the harbor for beers. After the bars closed we went back to our apartment with some new freinds and partied until dawn. One of the band members computer got soaked in alcohol in the process. Still. Nothing a little hair-drying couldn’t fix.

Oslo, Tuesday

Oslo, Tuesday

We took turns driving to Oslo, and tried to make up for lost sleep in the car on the way. After a quick sound check at Cafe Mono, we walked around the city centre for a couple of hours with our instruments playing for the people we met.

Everything about Cafe Mono was utterly professional. We were treated to great food and a well equipped back-stage area. The sound technician Trond did wonders with our sound, and we had a great time on stage.

When the show was over the bartender from the bar persuaded us to do an encore, by offering us more of that free Norwegian beer.

After the gig, a rest was surely needed, and we were delighted when we saw what a friend of the band (Hildur living in Oslo) had prepared for us that evening: clean bed sheets, pillows and soft mattresses along with XO Cognac, to gain strength and prepare ourselves for the driving back to Gothenburg the morning after for our second visit there this trip.

With approximently 2 hours of sleep we rode to the tv station TV4 to play on the morning news show “Nyhetsmorgon”, which has the distinction of being the morning show with the highest ratings in Sweden. We were greeted with a warm welcome and a breakfast buffet after our soundcheck. The rest of the band hung out in the backroom while Ragnar was prepared for his interview, where he was asked among other things about his swedish connection from childhood. We played two songs, both of which can be seen here along with the interview.

All in all we spent six hours there nodding off between appearances so afterwards we spent the next few hours making up for the previous nights lost sleep. The day ended with a gig at a pub called El Mundo located in a art and culture upper center of Stockholm.

Stockholm, Sunday

Waking up Sunday around noon, the first order of the day was a to procure a new string for one of the guitars, which was urgently needed in time for our 5am TV gig, but which was complicated by the fact that all shops were closed. Once again, our by now good friend Jenny came to the rescue and lent us one of the guitars from her home.
Having taken the 'scenic route' across Stockholm courtesy of our gps-guidance system, we next walked over to Drottninggatan to play in the streets.

After consulting one of the local street artists, a folk singer from Hungary, we picked our spot near parliament and unpacked our instruments. Our passersby were mostly tourists, weekend shoppers, or locals just enjoying a Sunday walk around town. By sunset we had sold some CDs, made some new friends and raked in some hard-earned cash. All in day's work.

Saturday in Stockholm. We got up early to play at the Weekend Market in Gärdet, one of Stockholms many beautiful neighbourhoods, with wide open spaces, tall leafy trees and plenty of grass for swedish teenagers to practice american football. We did a set of our songs in sunshine under a clear sky, but towards the end, as we sang the lines of Sunday Morning: '...as it is it's raining every day' wouldn't you know it, it started to rain. We dove into a nearby tent or under umbrellas to finish our set without the instruments being harmed, but we wouldn't be so lucky later in the evening.


A quick shower and then off to the garden party. We were invited to a barbecue at a friends house, which had a western theme. Being in another country we were ill equipped but we threw on our best checkered shirts and some blue jeans and headed out to meet some locals. When we arrived we were greeted by our amazing host Jenny who welcomed us with trays of grilled lamb and corn-on-the-cob. After a great meal we played a couple of songs as a way of thanks. After a crash course in line dancing we felt confident enough to try a couple of steps along to Rednex 'classic' hit Cotton Eye Joe. As the night wore on we moved inside and did some more uptempo numbers for the guests who were in high spirits. Passing our instruments around to shake things up, we went into a heavier number. Maybe a bit too heavy, for a string in one of the guitars broke, leaving us desperately seeking a replacement in time for our gig on TV on monday morning.

Borås, Friday

We drove Borås and performed at a radio show called Cocktail on channel P4. The host, Lotta Brunmark, had prepared an Icelandic theme for us which included Icelandic candy. After a few remarks about how our volcano ruined everyone else's vacation plans, she asked us in a deadpan manner how it feels to come from the most hated country in Europe, which was proceeded by a few seconds of radio silence as we groped for a comeback. I guess we should have had some prepared soundbytes around that. Otherwise, Swedes have generally been very lovable to us.

We continued to Stockholm and played an impromptu gig in our friend Erik's apartment. The band members then had a look at the local bars, before tucking in for the night.

Gothenburg, Thursday

We did the first gig of the tour at Pustervik in Gothenburg. The audience was great, and the stage sound was top-notch. We celebrated the whole night, drinking Icelandic Brennivín together with Peter Andersson, the president of Adore Music.

Not having any trees in Iceland, we decided to climb some that night. One of the band members fell out of it though, and now has a slight but charming limp.

Earlier that day we did an recording session for the blog In My Kitchen. Two songs will be aired there next month.

We flew to Kopenhagen yesterday, and drove to Gothenburg. We named our tour-bus Ronnie James Dio. On the road we had beautiful weather, and saw som amazing scenery... unfortunately no one thought of taking pictures while driving. But here are som pictures from the airport:

Flights from Iceland leave ridiculously early in the morning, so some off us didn't have time to sleep. You could say that we were a bit tired yesterday.