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.