Friday, May 7, 2010

Poll Results: Your Favorite Icelandic Artist

The past poll asked for your favorite Icelandic musical artist. To lift Iceland's post-volcano spirits, I thought it important to celebrate their wonderfully weird music scene. For such a small and seemingly boring country, Iceland has put out a considerable amount of great music in the last two decades or so. Often, the music echoes the iciness implied by the country's name--see Bjork's Homogenic or Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun for the best examples. In addition to those artists, Iceland has produced people as varied as bluesman Mugison and modern composer Johann Johannson. The most intriguing recent stuff out of Iceland has been courtesy of Bedroom Community, a relatively new Icelandic label that has released things by Icelanders Daniel Bjarnason and Valgeir Sigurosson, Aussie-expat-in-Iceland Ben Frost, and American-signed-to-an-Icelandic-label Sam Amidon. Go Iceland!

Anyhow, I asked your favorite artist of this bunch (not including Sam Amidon). You responded and, semi-unsurprisingly, chose Sigur Ros as your favorite. Sigur Ros is a great band, so no complaints there. What was slightly surprising was Johann Johannson coming in second and Bjork in third; I was expecting to see Bjork at 1 or 2. Anyhow, the rest of the bunch failed to garner any votes. Sorry Daniel Bjarnason! Whatever.

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