It was (where else?) during an International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) movie that I fell in love with Icelandic music. The documentary ‘screaming masterpiece’ beautifully showed why music from Iceland is so great. An isolated island between the USA and Europe with long cold nights and some of the most amazing landscapes on the planet. This resulted in very distinctive music, balancing on the fine rope between hope and desperation.
Fast forward several years. Sigur Ros became one of my favorite bands and it’s singer went solo under the name ‘Jonsi’. It was one of my most highly anticipated concerts in Amsterdam’s best venue (Paradiso, a former church). The sound volume was the highest I ever experienced. The visuals were the best of any concert, ever. The emotions expressed on the faces and by the bodies showed that the band wasn’t just playing music, but truly living it.

The complete audience was mesmerized. In the middle of the concert the band stopped playing and Jonsi stopped singing. silence. Complete silence in a room with over a thousand persons for way over a minute. When band recommenced playing, the building nearly collapsed by the explosion that lasted until the end of the concert.