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Recommended Iceland Music Exports

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I am thrilled anytime someone whose taste I trust gives me a music recommendation. So I try to share my discoveries as well (and hopefully I’ve built up some trust with you. Ha).

While in Iceland I found the following 3 musical groups. And I’ve been listening to them ever since the trip. They are great finds, breaking up my usual listening patterns and bringing freshness and inspiration to my own writing.

The first, and best, of the music discovered is a young artist named Asgeir (pronounced Ous-geear). The entire album is unreal – listenable and beautiful. It’s a mystical, more hopeful and danceable Bon Iver. Here’s a link to a weird video, but a great song. The album is “In the Silence”.
 http://asgeirmusic.com/#

While printing our May Almanac covers yesterday, I listened to this next artist. Olafur Arnolds creates ambient, spacious landscapes with piano and strings – then he sneaks in electronic drums. Can I say it feels subtle yet epic? I felt like I was in a movie by the end of the printing time.
http://olafurarnalds.com/

Lastly, is the dirty and creative sound of Hjaltalin (I have no idea how to pronounce it correctly. Even after asking several times…) It’s a garage band kind of sound with a little bit of Icelandic soul. And a little creepy.
http://www.hjaltalinmusic.com/

Enjoy these exports. Hope they enrich your music experiences.

Tim
Giants & Pilgrims

Finding Green or “#findinggreen”

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For this ending of March/ beginning of April, Betony and are heading to Iceland. We’ll be celebrating our 10 year anniversary and will, of course, be posting lots of pictures of the adventure.

In keeping with our March Almanac we’ll be tagging those photos with #findinggreen. Because, hey, it’s spring in Iceland too!

Would you like to join us in this hashtag? Imagine how beautiful to go to the tag and see dozens of pictures of spring bursting forth!

Follow Betony on her instagram (betonycoons) if you’d like to see our photos and we look forward to seeing your all’s pictures as well.

 

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“Why We are going to Iceland” or The Table, the Synagogue, and the Pilgrimage

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In the past few weeks as we tell people we are going to Iceland for our 10 year anniversary we get two reactions. The first is the usual excitement over a big trip. The second is confusion settling in.

“Why in the world would you want to go to Iceland?”

It’s a great question. And my answer is fairly unrefined and open. But I wanted to share it here.

It’s not about Iceland.

The place and trip really is secondary in our minds.

Really, Betony asked me if there was any place significant and meaningful I wanted to go for this big 10 year marker. I couldn’t think of anyplace. I gave a half-thought answer, “I’ve always wanted to try and see the northern lights”. That’s all it took. She started looking up Iceland travels and seeing how stark and beautiful the country is.

No, it’s not about Iceland. This trip is first about the importance of having a marker, a large gesture, to celebrate and recognize this point in our relationship.

Because I’d honestly be just as happy to have a week-long jaunt in Denver with my wife. But I completely recognize this: It’s important to tell a great story. And it’s important to have a grander gesture for the grander moments in our lives.

For example, I didn’t want to go to my college graduation. My parents made me and I’m so happy I have the memory of that weekend with them.

And I’d have been happy to elope with a couple friends. I’m so glad our wedding was a spectacular affair with friend and family surrounding us.

In my life I want to make sure and do this. I want to take the time, energy, finances and celebrate things right. When we do this it creates alters and markers in our minds of the important event. It creates a place we can return to that is large and grand in our memories. It’s a bright past that propels us forward when we need the reminder.

The writer Phyllis Tickle writes and talks about the rhythms of family. It’s in our rhythms that our values are passed to our children and we live out what we believe. She points out three major rhythms, putting it this way:

The Table: it’s where we daily gather together, pray, break bread, share stories
The Synagogue: is where we weekly lean on each other, encounter God, talk about the most important things
The Pilgrimage: is the great trip to Jerusalem, done yearly or only a few times in a lifetime, the unifying event

As I process taking this trip to Iceland with my wife, I’m thinking of it as a Pilgrimage.

It’s something you only once in a lifetime. It’s to celebrate this woman I love so deeply. It’s to create bright memories that I can return to when the path forward gets difficult.

That’s my answer. That’s why we’re going to Iceland.