kitchen motors family album

kitchen motors family album is finally playing in my ipod, in a nut shell, KM family album is: "A compilation featuring brand new songs by 20 Icelandic artists involved with Kitchen Motors in one way or the other. Most of the tracks were made especially for this album. Artists include Jonsi from Sigur Ros (as Frakkur), Mum, Mugison,Amiina,Slowblow etc."
Full track list here

2001年一月号的the wire杂志上有一片介绍sigur ros和冰岛新音乐的文章，文字写的很美，读的时候不停的神游在Noi里冰岛荒芜又神奇的黑土地上，离开新西兰的时候记得把它扫描了下来，现在读来一样神情荡漾。我想下面的节选或许从冰岛人的角度讲述了为什么小小的冰岛有着如此巨大的魔力吧。

Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson: Icelandic film composer

Krístin Björk: co-founder of kitchen motors records

Quoted from the Wire issue 203 Jan 2001

"[In Iceland] everybody reads obituaries," comments Himar Orn Hilmarsson. "And in a way it makes everybody's life pretty worthwhile. In other places you have to be someone, whereas in Iceland you can be someone’s great grandmother who hasn’t really accomplished anything…But it’s also this urge to tell stories, to give them life in death, basically. To give everybody some sort of dignity – I think that’s really important.”

“We have absolutely no buildings; we have nothing except stories – that’s what kept us going. Sometimes in a really pathetic way, they are stuck on the glorious past that was Iceland but never was. And of course, a lot of the original art and customs were stamped out by the Danish authorities. So we’ve lost most of our folk music, our traditional dances, because they were seen as obscene, so they were outlawed in the 18^th century. We haven’t got a heritage but we kept the stories. It’s very similar to Ireland; it’s very refreshing to come to Ireland, and just go into the some atmosphere: they don’t have football stars, they have Yeats and poets.

“I think it differs a lot between musicians,” says Kristin, “how well connected they are with their roots. Some people let the roots grow from the earth into their body and out into their music; and will be open for that. Open for the volcano that everybody is born with inside.”

“It’s a question of belief systems,” Hilmarsson states. “Icelander converted nominally to Christianity 1000 years ago, but they never really did it. So we had the old gods, they live through the folklore, they lived through all these different customs, and you find out that the majority of the population believes in elves and power spots and stuff like that. So in a way, the invisible world is always with us. We believe in it; I think magic and ritual works only if you believe in it.”

“The angels have retreated to the wilderness, holed up in land that denser populations call ‘waste’. Here is in fact waste’s opposite – fulsome space that is a zone for visions. Inspiration can easily strike quick in such a space – pimpled with mounds concealing ancient dead. From the air, jetblack roads circle to a full stop in black pools.”

初步翻译了如下:

Hilmarsson说,“在冰岛每个人都会去读讣告，在某种意义上来说，它让每个人的人生都显得那么珍贵而重要。在其他的地方你或许得是名人才会有人去注意你的讣告，但是在冰岛，这可以是任何一个人的祖母，即使她一生再碌碌无为…故事在人们口中传诵，在永恒的死中赋予死者生，赋予他或者她生命的尊严，而这是何等的重要."

“我们的历史从不在建筑中传承。或者说，除了故事，我们冰岛人一无所有 - 这也是让我们不断向前的动力。有时候却又是如此的可悲，人们迷恋于古冰岛光荣的历史，但其实那个冰岛从来也不曾存在。当然，许多原始艺术与习俗都因为丹麦的统治而被驱逐。带有浓重冰岛色彩的民间音乐和传统舞蹈在18世纪时被明令禁止，因为在丹麦官方看来他们下流而猥亵。我们丢失了传统但却保留了我们冰岛的故事。这就和爱尔兰很像，每次来到爱尔兰总让人感觉如此清新，和冰岛一样，他们没有足球明星，但他们有叶芝和诗歌.”

“这是一个信仰的问题” Hilmarsson说.”冰岛人名义上在1000年前就皈依了基督教，但事实上我们从来都没有。所以我们有我们古老的神，他们在冰岛的民歌和风俗中生存了下来，你会发现，大多数的冰岛人都相信小精灵，power spots和许多类似的东西。一个无形的奇异世界永远都伴随着冰岛人。我们对此深信不疑；而只有当你深信不疑时魔幻和宗教仪式才得以存在.”

“我认为冰岛的音乐家之间都存在着相当大的差异,” Kristin说, “这也许取决于他们与他们的根源联系的紧密性。冰岛黑土里生长出来的灵性在一些人体内绽放；他们的心是敞开的，始终向哺育每个冰岛人的火山敞开着.”

“天使回到了茫茫的荒野，在这个大多数人眼中的蛮荒之地安静的生息。而这里恰恰是蛮荒的反面，有着无尽的想象空间，灵感在在这块四处隐掩着先灵坟墓的土地上生根发芽。在空气中，黑色的道路盘旋着，在黑色的池塘前画上句点.”

mp3 (on sendspace):

Mugison - Mugi wants to be Mum

Benni Hemm Hemm - GítStemm

Borko - Shoo ba ba

Tags: kitchen motors family album, iceland music