Gargandi Snilld

A Nation of 300.000 People
90 Music Schools
6.000 Choir Members
400 Orchestras and Marching Bands
and an unknown number of Rock Bands

Screaming Masterpiece Trailer


Many of you certainly know all about, - maybe even have seen live - Björk, listened to a few albums by Sigur Rós and múm, and if you are lucky, you have heard of Slowblow. These - and many more - are all incredibly unique pieces of music that capture you from the moment you listen to. So, what is it that lies beneath this grand variety of Icelandic music? Is it the nature which is extremely unfamiliar to us? Is it the tradition? Is it the "ice"? Gargandi Snilld aka Screaming Masterpiece is a 2005 documentary searching for the answer to that question.

Mum & Slowblow


They have their own alphabet and great stories of their triumphs.
They still record their history in songs and rhyme or carve it into rock so that these memories will be preserved, unless the violent forces of nature erase them.
Saxo Grammaticus, 12th Century A.D.

Mum


The movie, directed by Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon, consists mostly of many live footages of Iceland's biggest musicians, such as Björk, Sigur Rós, Slowblow, múm, as well as live performances by some smaller bands and interviews with musicians. It is a profoundly impressive documentary - even if it lacks a deep insight to the richness of that music - thanks to the impact of Icelandic scenery with the carefully chosen examples of music in the background.

Bjork in NYC


I believe that the enrichment of Iceland's music roots from the fact that the country is not truly a part of any other continent's established culture, but rather a unique one in itself. As Johann Johannsson explains, Iceland is not a part of Europe and certainly not America, it is definitely in between. It can get certain things and there comes out an interesting blend of what is received and what is built-in. The necessity to search for the ultimate response to any question within its own culture in the end results in this fertile mixture. Therefore, while the world is thinking of elves and trolls and a harsh nature when the word Iceland comes up, in reality, it is a country filled with creativity, experiments and the ever on-going record of the ancient and the contemporary on music.