UKNY For May 20
Reykjavík street art on Laugavegur (photo by Kara Manning)
Last week I travelled to Iceland for the first time—and fell head over heels with the temperamental grandeur, dramatic beauty, and effusive joy of the country. All elements of this northern dreamscape, illumininated in mid-May by milky, early summer sunlight that languidly stretches nearly 20 hours (when it's not raining), feeds into Icelandic lifestyle and lore.
Everything here is cast with a slightly enchanted spell: there's cool Reykjavík hangouts, like the marvelous Lucky Records or the new Marshall House center for visual art; unique and winsome street art (pictured); and Icelandic foals and lambs gamboling by their mothers in the pastures shadowed by the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. And there's few places in the world where you'll find residents who will more earnestly convince you that elves and trolls really do exist (they absolutely do in Iceland).
So much of tonight's UKNY at 11 will be devoted to some of the old and new Icelandic music that I found while browsing in Lucky Records or I heard during my far-too-brief visit, like recent releases from JFDR's Jófríður Ákadóttir, Milkywhale and Vök.
And there will be British releases too, including something from Jane Weaver's outstanding new album Modern Kosmology and another single from Public Service Broadcasting's forthcoming Every Valley.
Waiting for Melissa McCarthy as Spicey on SNL? You can stream UKNY in the FUV Weekend Archives for two weeks after broadcast.
Songs played:
1. Public Service Broadcasting, “They Gave Me A Lamp,” Every Valley
2. Dutch Uncles, “Streetlight,” Big Balloon
3. Jane Weaver, “H>A>K,” Modern Kosmology
4. Björk Guðmundsdóttir & tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, “Litli Tonlistarmadurinn,” Gling-Gló
5. Lára Rúnars, “Frelsi,” Þel
6. Vök, “Show Me” Figure
7. Sigur Rós, “Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur” Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
8. JFDR, “White Sun” Brazil
9. The Low Roar featuring Jófríður Ákadóttir, “Bones,” Once in a Long, Long While
10. Milkywhale, “Goodbye,” Milkywhale
11. Sóley, “Never Cry Moon,” Endless Summer
12. (Commonwealth Cut: Melbourne, Australia) Courtney Barnett, “How To Boil An Egg,” single
13. (EU Cut: Helsinki, Finland) Peppina, “Moments,” single
14. Laura Marling, “Wild Once,” Semper Femina
