A Taste of Iceland with Amiina

Angelina Zhou, Tufts ’13 / SMFA ’14, angelina.zhou@tufts.edu
Angelina will be posting a weekly article on art in the Boston area. Check back each week to see what she writes about next!
 
Iceland has been hit hard by the failure of the nation’s own banking system and subsequent 2008 economic crisis, and it shows— The nation’s annual A Taste of Iceland event, just having wrapped up its second year, attempts to draw Bostonian tourists to the European island country. The hope is that Bostonians, for whom Iceland is the closest European point of entry, would help generate revenue to feed Iceland’s tourism industry.
 
According to the official event page, A Taste of Iceland is a “Viking invasion,” a week-long event that will “offer Bostonians a chance to discover the wonders of Icelandic culture and lifestyle.” Among the events included New Nordic cuisine prepared by world-renowned Icelandic chef Jóhannes Jóhannesson, DJ Baldur spinning at club RISE on Stuart Street in Boston, and a free performance by string quartet Amiina at the Middle East Downstairs nightclub in Cambridge. Will Iceland’s cry for help—  nay, Amiina’s beautifully melodic pleas of strings, bells, and the musical saw— get through to Bostonians? Even in his drunken stupor, a young 20-something-year-old at the Middle East slurs, “I LOVE ICELAAAAAAND!”
 
When I saw Amiina perform for the first time in March 2007 in the cushy Remis Auditorium of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, everything about the show was magical. Amiina was composed of four women in their late twenties and early thirties: Hildur Ársælsdóttir, Edda Rún Ólafsdóttir, Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir. They donned patterned dresses, wore their hair in loose waves, and had complexions so fair that I could have sworn they had been the princesses of fairy tales from long ago. A crazy thought, yes. But I can guarantee you would have thought the exact same thing.
 

Not only did they look the part, but the music that left their lips and fingertips was also nothing short of ethereal. Initially Amiina had been a string quartet: two violins, one viola, and one cello. For several years, the quartet recorded and performed with Icelandic band Sigur Rós. In 2006, Amiina embarked on their first solo tour through Europe and North America. The band greatly expanded their repertoire of instruments to include the glockenspiel, Gideon harp, and musical saw, among numerous others. The resulting compositions recalled a minimalistic, ambient style; an electronic rendition of classical tradition.
 
Fast-forward almost exactly four years, it is late Saturday evening and I am crammed into the sweaty, musty Middle East nightclub, lodged a mere few feet away from the same four stunning creatures. Somehow, they still feel untouchable, otherworldly almost. A camera flash goes off and blinds me momentarily. A man totters dangerously to the left of me, clearly very intoxicated, and I am jolted to full attention. If the pounding bass from the nightclub upstairs doesn’t give me a heart attack already, it will be the creep in the front row taking pictures of the unsuspecting women around him. Amiina, darlings— tell me, what are you doing here?
 
So maybe they don’t appreciate you as much as I do. Maybe they won’t even remember you come morning. But, there is always that small glimmer of hope as the man hollers, “I LOVE ICELAAAAAAND!” Hurrah, Iceland, you’ve made your mark. I wish you the best of luck.