Iceland Airwaves by the Numbers

Iceland Airwaves 2012 poster
Uber-geek Souvenir

 

In science there is only physics. All the rest is stamp collecting. – Ernest Rutherford.

 

Maybe it’s because I used to be a stamp collector (molecular genetics lab tech), but I can’t resist the urge to measure things that don’t really need to be measured. Iceland Airwaves was a five-day MFA program in music that quite literally changed the way I hear music. When I came home, I put on my old CDs and sometimes I could barely recognize the once-familiar music – I just heard different things.

That should be enough. But no, useless data must follow.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Number of shows watched1: 42Momentum band

Number of artists watched2: 36

Number of venues attended: 14

Number of artist interviews performed3: 9

 

Complete list of artists

  • 1860
  • Agent Fresco
  • Angist
  • Apparat Organ Quartet
  • Ásgeir Trausti1860 band
  • Beneath
  • Benni Hemm Hemm
  • Eldar
  • Exit Music
  • Ghostigital
  • Gone Postal
  • HAM
  • The Heavy Experience
  • Lockerbie
  • Momentum
  • Mr. Silla
  • Myrra Rós
  • Nova Heart
  • Of Monsters and Men
  • Ojba Rasta
  • Paul Corley
  • Retrobot
  • Reykjavík!
  • Shabazz PalacesReykjavik! band
  • Sigur RósSigur Ros
  • Siinai
  • Skálmöld
  • Sólstafir
  • Stereo Hypnosis
  • Svartidauði
  • THEE Satisfaction
  • Tilbury
  • Úlfur
  • Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán
  • Valdimar
  • Valgeir Sigurðsson

  • Footnotes

    [1] Incomplete performances are included; however, if I only caught the first or last song, it didn’t count. For example, Exit Music is included, even though I left just past the midway mark. The Barr Brothers are excluded, because I only heard 1 ½ songs. Performances where I could not see the stage, such as Agent Fresco at Nordic House and Apparat Organ Quartet at KEX, were also included, as long as I could clearly hear the music. Shows that happened to be going on in the same space where I was busy doing something else, such as the folk singers who performed at KEX on mornings when I was writing, or bands playing in venues where I met artists for interviews, are excluded.

    [2] I attended multiple sets of several artists, so the number does match the number of shows. Also, in one case, two bands performed together.

    [3] Includes interviews with Airwaves performers that were performed before or after the festival.Valgeir Sigurðsson

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