SÓLSTAFIR will kick off their very special European tour on Sunday, March 10 in London (UK). The band will bring 9 band members, as they will be joined on stage by a string section. ‘The Midnight Sun: A Light In The Storm’– tour marks the end of the touring cycle in support of their latest album ‘Berdreyminn’.
SÓLSTAFIR comment: “A different approach will define this particular tour – the focus here will not only be on ‘Berdreyminn’. Inspiration will also be drawn from a wider canon – a leaning towards the mellower side, to the sublime.”
The massive road-trip will run through 12 more countries before the final curtain falls at the Palac Akropolis in Prague (CZ) on the 26th of March.
SÓLSTAFIR European tour
10 Mar 19 London (UK) Queen Elizabeth Hall
11 Mar 19 Paris (FR) Cafe de la Danse
12 Mar 19 Antwerpen (BE) Trix
13 Mar 19 Utrecht (NL) Tivoli Cloud Nine
14 Mar 19 Bochum (DE) Christuskirche
15 Mar 19 Nuremburg (DE) Z-Bau
16 Mar 19 Berlin (DE) Apostel-Paulus-Kirche
17 Mar 19 Bremen (DE) Schlachthof
18 Mar 19 Aschaffenburg (DE) Colos Saal
19 Mar 19 Lucerne (CH) Schuur
20 Mar 19 Milan (IT) Santeria Social Club
21 Mar 19 Ljubljana (SI) Kino Siska
22 Mar 19 Novi Sad (RS) Novosadski Sajam
23 Mar 19 Brasov (RO) Kruhnen Musik Halle
24 Mar 19 Kosice (SK) Collosseum
25 Mar 19 Budapest (HU) A38
26 Mar 19 Prague (CZ) Palac Akropolis
Other SÓLSTAFIR live dates
9 May 19 Bergen (NO) Hulen
10 May 19 Wroclaw (PL) Into The Abyss 2019
11 May 19 Vienna (AT) Vienna Metal meeting
20 Jul 19 Laukaa (FI) John Smith
10 Aug 19 Schlotheim (DE) Party.San 2019
The band will be touring in support of the Icelander’s latest album, ‘Berdreyminn’ which is streaming in full here. Artwork and further information can be found below.
Track-list
1. Silfur-Refur (6:54)
2. Ísafold (4:59)
3. Hula (7:07)
4. Nárós (7:23)
5. Hvít Sæng (7:22)
6. Dýrafjörður (7:32)
7. Ambátt (8:08)
8. Bláfjall (8:00)
Music will always be inspired by the environment in which it is created. With its incredible array of highly diverse landscapes ranging from white glaciers via volcanic bizarreness, moss-green bubble-fields, deep fjords, and frost-cracked mountains to black beaches, Iceland has shaped a host of astonishingly original and fiercely individual bands such as SIGUR RÓS, BJÖRK, and SÓLSTAFIR.
SÓLSTAFIR embody the ever-turning wheel of seasons with their shifting light, darkness, and colours, extreme Northern climate, the stark contrasts, the closeness of beauty and deadly forces of nature, the impressive sceneries that have the bones of ancient gods enshrined in them like hardly any other band in every aspect of their existence.
SÓLSTAFIR are not like any other band. Their latest album, ‘Berdreyminn’ underscores this statement. As its title “a dreamer of forthcoming events” aptly describes, the four Icelanders have taken their already impressive evolution one step further. The band has continued to amalgamate haunting melodies, psychedelic phases, as well as strong undercurrents of classic rock and hard rock with echoes of their metal past. Yet SÓLSTAFIR‘s focus is not on style but pure emotion. ‘Berdreyminn’ is eclectic by a conscious choice to make feelings audible and transform taste as well as texture to sound. Genre borders are not broken but simply ignored. Musical influences are gathered from a wide range of sources, re-arranged, and woven into new patterns. Melancholy, longing, anger, joy, pleasure, pain, and other emotions are fulling this album.
Despite leaning clearly towards an expression that can be described as rock today, SÓLSTAFIR have their roots in metal as their debut full-length ‘Í Blóði og Anda’ (2002), which translates as “In Blood and Spirit” still witnesses. Instead of today’s Icelandic gravel throated siren chants, frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason spat forth vitriolic crusty vocals and all strings were forged with black metal. Already their next albums ‘Masterpiece of Bitterness’ (2005) and ‘Köld’ (2009) marked stations of a continuous evolution. SÓLSTAFIR went further along their solitary path and obviously left any categorising box with the ground-breaking follow-ups ‘Svartir Sandar’ (2011) and ‘Ótta’ (2014), which received high critical acclaim and attracted new fans in equal measure, while managing the difficult feat of keeping most of their earlier following too.
SÓLSTAFIR have set sails to new horizons with ‘Berdreyminn’. Yet the Icelanders brought their home with them and the silhouette of their vessels remains easily recognisable. Welcome aboard on a new adventurous musical journey into uncharted territories.
Line-up
Aðalbjörn Tryggvason: guitar, vocals
Svavar Austmann: bass
Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson: guitar
Hallgrímur Jón Hallgrímsson: drums, backing vocals
Guest musicians
Brass, strings, and piano across the tracks
Recording: Sundlaugin Studio (IS), Birgir Jón Birgisson & Jaime Gomez Arellano
Mixing: Orgone Studio (UK), Jaime Gomez Arellano
Mastering: Sterling Mastering (US), Ted Jensen
Cover art: Adam Burke
www.solstafir.net
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