Extreme Chill 2026 – 5 Concerts not to miss!

Extreme Chill is the quiet, curious corner of the Icelandic festival calendar, and I look forward to it more than almost anything else all year. It was started by Pan Thorarensen and his father Óskar, who in 2009 played a release concert in Hellissandur, a village out on Snæfellsnes, and were so surprised by the turnout that they came back the following summer and made a festival of it. Sixteen years later it’s Iceland’s longest-running festival devoted to experimental and electronic music, and it has settled into downtown Reykjavík.

This year it runs from 2 to 6 September across four venues, none of them more than a few minutes’ walk apart. Here’s what I’m most looking forward to.

An Icelandic electronic project with a playful and experimental sound. I’m curious to discover this unique mix of electronic music, imagination and Icelandic character.

Behind the name — it means “DJ Airplane and Spaceship” — is Steinunn Eldflaug Harðardóttir (note, her middle name means “Rocket,” and is not a common Icelandic name). Working alone with synths and drum machines and singing in Icelandic. She calls what she does electronic horror music with a space twist, and her concerts are less a set than a strange piece of theatre: songs about alien worlds, evil cats, deals with the devil, deliberately made to be seen rather than streamed.

She opens the festival at Space Odyssey on Bergstaðastræti 4 — Pan’s own record shop and venue, which doubles as festival headquarters and is where you collect wristbands.

A legendary Japanese producer known for blending hip-hop, jazz, dub and atmospheric electronic music. His dark, cinematic sound seems perfect for a late-night festival experience.

Hideaki Ishi has been making records as DJ Krush since the early nineties and is widely credited with putting Japanese hip-hop on the map. Strictly Turntablized came out on Mo’ Wax in 1994 and still sounds like nothing else; later records brought in traditional Japanese instruments and collaborations with Mos Def, DJ Shadow and Guru. He is the biggest name on this year’s bill by some distance.

He plays Gamla Bíó on Ingólfsstræti, the old cinema from 1926 — a single high hall where you can either stand down on the floor or sit up on the balcony and look over the whole room. It has been beautifully restored and it sounds superb.

An American composer and sound artist creating immersive music somewhere between ambient, electronic and modern classical. His slowly evolving soundscapes invite you to simply get lost in the atmosphere.

He works out of New York, where he runs Black Knoll Studio and has mastered records for Ryuichi Sakamoto, Terry Riley, Grouper and William Basinski — so a great deal of the ambient music you already love has passed through his hands. His own records lean on bowed guitar, strings and field recordings, built into dense and rather mournful clouds of sound.

He opens the Friday at Iðnó, the old timber theatre on Vonarstræti at the edge of Tjörnin.

The project of Italian musician Guido Zen, known for deep, atmospheric and dreamlike electronic music. His slowly changing textures and drones create an almost otherworldly listening experience.

Zen is based in Rome and works mostly with modular synthesisers. His music has ended up in some unlikely places — a Ridley Scott trailer, a Ferragamo runway show — and he has written for pipe organ and orchestra. He also records regularly with Rafael Anton Irisarri, so two of my five picks are frequent collaborators, which I only noticed after choosing them.

He closes the Saturday at Tjarnarbíó on Tjarnargata. The building went up in 1913 as an icehouse, packed with ice cut from the pond next door to keep fish fresh for export, and the backstage area was once the city fire station. It became a cinema during the war, which is where the name comes from, and after a long renovation it reopened in 2010 as the home of Iceland’s independent performing arts scene.

An American ambient and experimental electronic artist whose music feels hazy, intimate and dreamlike. A perfect choice for slowing down and ending the festival on a more contemplative note.

Ulla Straus built her reputation out of Philadelphia, first under the name YYU and then under her own, with records like Tumbling Towards a Wall and Foam. Her music is often described as ambient but sits closer to sound art — small, tactile, quietly strange.

She opens the last night back at Iðnó, and Perila, who she has recorded with as a duo, follows immediately after her.

Full programme at extremechill.org and tickets on midi.is. A festival pass covering all five days is available, in addition to day tickets. Wristbands are collected from Space Odyssey at Bergstaðastræti 4.

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