popplagið.com Sigur Rós, Amiina and Various Artists Screaming Masterpiece (Gargandi Snilld)

Soundtrack from the documentary Screaming Masterpiece that features the best of contemporary Icelandic music.

PAL 2 DVD SPAIN 2007

8436022291409

Screaming Masterpiece captures all the energy of the world’s hottest indie music scene in Iceland’s cool capital city of Reykjavik. There are masterful performances by international superstars like Bjork, Sigur Rós and Mum, as well as insider looks at the music being played in local clubs by a host of other bands with unpronounceable names but unforgettable music. The film journeys through Iceland’s breathtaking landscape and back down the centuries to Viking times in search of an answer to the question, asked again and again by the music press and eager fans: Why is this music so hot? This is a feature-length powerhouse film, throbbing with musical energy and fast-moving visuals. If you have ever wondered at the distinct and captivating music of Iceland, this is the film that will take you to the source and show you where it’s all coming from. An inspirational rock-documentary, Screaming Masterpiece is a piece of music history.
The DVD includes more than two extra hours of indepth interviews with the artists who explain their own theories of what the music is all about.
smekkleysa sm/ehf

The movie Screaming Masterpiece asks the question: why is the small Icelandic community so music mad? Is it the isolation or 'the long nights with nothing to do but drink' as is implied? With interviews with native musicians from Bjork, Sigur Ros and Mum, to stories of the teenage band Nilfisk who end up opening for the Foo Fighters when they visit the island. The documentary was directed by Ari Alexander Ergis Magnusson 

• Steindor Andersen & Sigur Ros - A ferd til Breidafjardar

• Bjork - All is full of love - Oceania - NY live and interview

• Sigur Ros & Amina - #8 aka Popplagid

• Johann Johannsson - Odi et Amo

• Mum - Green Grass of tunnel

• Bang Gang - Find what you get

• Apparat Organ Quartet - Romantica

• Eivor Palsdottir - Brostnar borgir

• Slowblow - Within Tolerance

• Finnbogi Petursson - Conversation

• The Sugarcubes - Motorcrash

• Ghostigital - Bank

• Mugison - I'd ask

• Amina - Fjarskanistan

• Sigur Ros - Odin's Raven Magic

• Sigur Ros - Vidrar vel til loftarasa 

• Amiina -  interview 2004

Screaming Masterpiece DVD 2005  

SIGUR RÓS
For twelve years, this remarkable band has been playing its wildly original and totally entrancing music to an ever-growing audience. Their latest album, Takk, has taken their reputation to new heights and they have toured extensively, playing to large crowds around the world. Their songs are almost symphonic in structure, atmospheric, effects-laden and essentially unique, haunting melodies driven by insistent rhythms, often building to an indescribable crescendo with lead-singer Jónsi’s high voice and bowed guitar driving fans into ecstacy. Sigur Rós collaborated with Radiohead to write music for the modern dance piece Split Sides by Merce Cunningham.

AMIÍNA
They are a string quartet but they supplement their violins with electronics, xylophones and musical boxes to produce an ethereal sound of great complexity and charm. Their performances bring to mind the Javanese tradition of the Gamelan as well as more modern associations with serial music and electronic pop: A hard-to-define but highly accomplished mix. These four young women began playing together as a classical quartet in 1998 but since 2000 they have played and toured mostly with Sigur Rós. They are now, however, striking out on their own.

STEINDÓR ANDERSEN
Iceland’s ancient musical tradition revolves around the poetical tradition known as rímur, highly structured poems of up to hundreds of verses dealing with mythological and historical subjects. Today, Steindór Andersen is the best-known performer of this old poetry, sung to melodies that have been handed down orally through the centuries and only recently written down or recorded, often involving scales and tonal intervals no longer found in established Western music. Steindór Andersen’s collaborative efforts with such musicians as Sigur Rós, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and rapper Erpur Eyvindarson have renewed interest in the musical tradition and brought his chants to new audiences, not just in Iceland but all over the world.

ODIN’S RAVEN MAGIC
Odin’s Raven Magic by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Sigur Rós, Steindór Andersen and María Huld was performed at the Barbican Centre in London in 2001, at the Reykjavík Arts Festival 2002, and to full houses at Grande Halle De La Villette in Paris in 2004. In addition to the above, the piece features a full choir and a large string orchestra, as well as the unique stone harp, played by its builder Páll frá Húsafelli. Odin’s Raven Magic is an old Icelandic poem in the ancient Edda tradition. The poem recounts a great banquet held by the gods in Valhalla. While they are absorbed in their feasting, ominous signs appear that could foretell the end of the worlds of the gods and men.

HILMAR ÖRN HILMARSSON
Somewhat of a legend on the Icelandic music scene, Hilmar Örn has worked in many capacities, as composer, performer and producer. He was a presence in the band Þeyr which was one of the most influential groups of the early 1980s and later played with various groups in Icleand and abroad, including Psychick TV. He has also written music for a number of motion pictures. Hilmar Örn has worked extensively with ancient Icelandic music and poetry in collaboration with such artists as the traditional singer Steindór Andersen and Sigur Rós. Hilmar Örn is also the head-pagan of the old pagan religion in Iceland, worshipping the old gods Odin, Thor and Freyja.

First release:  Feb 2005
Date of theatrical release in Iceland: May 2005 
 

original title: GARGANDI SNILLD

english title: SCREAMING MASTERPIECE

written & directed: ARI ALEXANDER ERGIS MAGNÚSSON

producer: SIGURJÓN SIGHVATSSON

assistant director: ÞÓR ELDON

production company: PALOMAR PICTURES, ERGIS FILMPRODUCTION
ZIK ZAK FILMWORKS

executive producers: ARI ALEXANDER ERGIS MAGNÚSSON, THOR S. SIGURJÓNSSON, SKÚLI FR. MALMQUIST

Co-producers: JÓHANNA GUDRÚN GUNNARSDÓTTIR, MOGENS GLAD,
ÁRMANN GUÐMUNDSSON, POUL ERIK LINDEBORG, SAN FU MALTHA

line-producer: HLÍN JÓHANNESDÓTTIR

co-production companies: A-FILM Holland, ANGEL FILMS Denmark

script consultants: ÞÓR ELDON, JÓN PROPPÉ

director of photography: BERGSTEINN BJÖRGÚLFSSON

editor: JÓN YNGVI GYLFASON

sound: KJARTAN KJARTANSSON

supported by: EURIMAGES, NORDIC FILM- & TV FUND, ICELANDIC FILM CENTRE

in association with NRK & NORTHERN LIGHTS

running time: 87 MINUTES

shooting format: 35MM, 16MM, DVCAM

screening format: 35MM

colour/bw: COLOUR

fiilm gauge: 1:1.85

screen ratio: 16:9

sound: DOLBY DIGITAL

original language: ENGLISH/ICELANDIC

subtitled version: ENGLISH/ICELANDIC by Gunnar Þorri Pétursson, Jón Proppé

film genre: MUSIC FILM

production year: 2005

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES/BONUS MATERIAL / 160 min.

all interviews done by ARI ALEXANDER ERGIS MAGNÚSSON

director of photography: BERGSTEINN BJÖRGÚLFSSON

editor: EINAR BALDVIN ARASON, MATTHÍAS KRISTJÁNSSON

booklet text: JÓN PROPPÉ

english translation: JÓN PROPPÉ

dvd authoring co-ordinator: BJARKI GUNNARSSON

dvd authoring: ARNAR ÍVARSSON

graphic design: DAÐI HALL

subtitling: AÐALBJÖRN TRYGGVASON

hompage designed by SIGURÐUR G. SIGURÐSSON & MAGNEA J. MATTHÍASDÓTTIR

original poster design: JÓN MAGNÚSSON