Iceland Airwaves 2024 finished last weekend and the festival was packed with concerts and other events from international as well as local musicians. I saw fewer concerts than I would have liked but below are my highlights from IA24. Úlfur Úlfur had for me the best concert this year and a performance of the highest caliber in Kolaportið.

Iceland Airwaves has become known for presenting artists before they become big hits, for example Hot Chip, Sufjan Stevens and Florence and the Machine, as well as local big hitters that have since made it internationally, e.g. Of Monsters and Men, Ásgeir, Kaleo, Vök and FM Belfast.

• See also: Iceland Airwaves 2024 – Coming Soon

On Friday, Iðnó had a Faroese theme with three artists performing: Dania O. Tausen, Silvurdrongur and Marius Ziska. I really liked the Faroese theme night at Iðnó, discovering new artists and learning a bit more about the music scene of the islands from attending the concerts and by talking to representatives from the industry there. G! Festival is the main music festival of Faroe Islands, held annually like Iceland Airwaves.

Below is a summary of my highlights from the festival this year.

Dania O. Tausen

Dania O. Tausen won the album of the year at the Faroese music awards and received the most nominations. She has a Bachelor in Creative Writing and has been releasing music and poetry since 2019. The music is a kind of dreamy pop, described by Iceland Airwaves as “light and intelligent with strong melodies and playful lyrics that makes people stop and listen.”

Great performance and music that caught me from the first moment, this was the first time that I heard Dania’s music.

Silvurdrongur

Silvurdrongur is a writer, filmmaker and musician that has received multiple awards. He uses his native Faroese language, mixed with sophisticated soundscapes to create new genre descriptions like Doomer Pop, Haunted Club and Extinction Punk. Using more traditional genre descriptions, Silvurdrongur could be described as a mix of hiphop and dance music, on the edge of scary and silly. Silvurdrongur is also known from the band AGGRASOPPAR who have played all over Europe. 

The performance in Iðnó stood out as unusual for me, both in terms of music and stage performance. He connected well with the audience, for example by jumping down from the stage a few times to mix in with the crowd in front of the stage.

Marius Ziska 

Marius Ziska has been one of the most prominent figures of the Faroese music scene for many years. His first full albums were sung in English while Home/Heim is half English and half Faroese. Portur (2018) was fully in Faroese like his latest album, RÚM (2023). He has been associated with Bon Iver as well as the Icelandic Ásgeir Trausti with similar sound vibes. Marius has a love for electronic pop music mixed with the melancholy of the Faroese nature.

Many Icelanders are familiar with Marius Ziska from the time he first played at Iceland Airwaves back in 2013, which already made him a bit of a name here, especially with the song While You Were Dreaming that was played a lot on the biggest radio station.

Rock solid performance in an intimate atmosphere Iðnó that I enjoyed like the rest of the audience.

Úlfur Úlfur

Úlfur Úlfur (Wolf Wolf in English) has been one of the biggest names on the Icelandic rap/hip hop scene for over a decade now. The duo is composed of childhood friends from the countryside in Northwest Iceland, Helgi Sæmundur and Arnar Freyr, who have been making music together since their early teen years. In October 2023, they released their 4th album, Hamfarapopp. I will steal this spot on quote directly from the Iceland Airwaves website: “… and even though these two party dudes have evolved to middle aged dads, the wolf is still hungry.”

I have been listening to Úlfur Úlfur since they entered the local music scene but was not aware of their latest album from 2023 prior to this concert to be honest. I was still eager to see them live here for the second time based on their older hits, such as 100.000, Bróðir and Brennum allt.

This was one of the best concerts I have ever seen, there was not a dull second. I had sleeping problems for over a week before and during Airwaves and was tired most of the time as a result. But here, I simply entered the zone from the first tone to the last due to brilliant lyrics and melodies that caught the audience and kept them half-hypnotized (but also singing along and dancing) until the end of the final song. All the people around me close to the stage seemed like they were firmly in a flow state with the music and stage performance like me. After the weekend, I have had Úlfur Úlfur on repeat in the headphones to recall the concert experience … and as I write this post, the wolf is of course howling in my ears. 

The edgy lyrics in Icelandic fit perfectly with the catchy melodies and remind me in some ways of rap/hiphop acts like Stromae from France and Dillaz from Portugal, as both perform in their respective local languages rather than English, which dominates pop culture globally. 

To sum up, Úlfur Úlfur in Kolaportið for IA24 was a spectacular concert experience, in the same category for me as e.g. Omah Lay at Roskilde Festival this year, Kendrick Lamar at Roskilde Festival last year or Unnsteinn at Iceland Airwaves two years ago. Not a bad company to be in. Pure gold.

Teitur Magnússon (off-venue concert)

Teitur Magnússon plays catchy and melodious guitar pop with psychedelic edges. Iceland Airwaves describe the melodies as “sound like they could have been beamed out of a peaceful, blissed out 1970s beach enclave, picking up all the latest advances in music production along the way.”

This was the first concert I saw for this year’s festival (off-venue) and set the tone in a smooth way, easing us in at Tónabíó on Thursday.

We have already started counting down to Iceland Airwaves 2025! What about you?

The cover photo at the top of this post is from the Úlfur Úlfur concert in Kolaportið and was taken by Joana Fontinha for Iceland Airwaves. Originally published here.