HEAVY KNIFE: THE RAVEN FLY x SOLAR STARS
It's easy on the trendy ones in Sun signs in their studio in Seltjarnarnes. Amplifiers stand in stacks and the Greenlandic, Japanese, American, Irish and Icelandic flags hang from the gables, mixed with a tufted set list. In the middle of the studio, a small flat screen has been installed that shows a young boy, a mask on his face, attacking a full-grown man bleeding out in a green bush with a scar deep in his chest.
Yesterday, the RIFF editorial team got a sneak peek at the rockers' rehearsal, but on Friday night at 8pm at Háskólabíó, Sólstafir will be performing a film concert and playing music to accompany a screening of this classic liverwurst classic. Hrafn Gunnlaugsson.
Yesterday, the RIFF editorial team got a sneak peek at the rockers' rehearsal, but on Friday night at 8pm at Háskólabíó, Sólstafir will be performing a film concert and playing music to accompany a screening of this classic liverwurst classic. Hrafn Gunnlaugsson.
This is a special piece of music that RIFF commissioned from the band ten years ago, and has only been performed three times since then. When the call came at the time, the band didn't take long to say yes. An easy decision, say Sólstafir, because the image of Hrafn had already had a great influence on the band – but when Sólstafir recorded their first album, Masterpiece of Bitterness, they took The Raven Flies in VHS format from the James Bond video rental store, borrowed lines and scenes from the tape, and mixed them into the album's soundscape.
“When we started writing the music for the film, we were able to piece together the material we already had,” says Addi, the band’s singer and guitarist, explaining that when the band first started, the lyrics were heavily inspired by the old world, Norse mythology, and the Viking spirit – which is why the arrangement in this way into a two-hour piece was an ideal and enjoyable project for the band.
“No one has seen this movie as many times as we have,” says Addi. They have probably seen it 80 times in total. Now the members know the script more or less by heart and say they have to be careful on Friday nights, not to party too much before the movie – as they don’t mind doing during rehearsals.
When asked about favorite lines or scenes, there are no answers: “Leave us alone, you’re a Christian!” – “Do you have something to do with Þórð”, and then the phrase from which the concert takes its name and then of course the final scene of the film, which Sólstafir often plays as the opening video at concerts when they tour the world. Then they often send a picture to the director Hrafn and let him watch while Hrafninn flies to Tokyo, Tilburg, Dublin …
