Introducing: Kira Kira

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Photo credit: Diana Lindhardt

An unpredictable dialogue of electro-acoustic pranksterism and innocent melodic pop is at the heart of Our Map to the Monster Olympics, the new LP from Kira Kira – a somewhat curious Icelandic artist. Picking up where she left off on her 2006 LP Skotta, Our Map to the Monster Olympics is a twisting, sometimes terrifying, often glorious and touching kaleidoscope of a record.

Swarms of fragmented voices mouth melodies through home made microphones while contact-mic’ed Kalimba’s fight for breath in seas of beautifully damaged technicolour, granulated shotgun beats fire from sniper positions in foreboding atmospheres – and yet armies of glockenspiels, brass and casio’s remind us that everything will, in fact, be OK.

Since 1999 Kira has been a constant enigma – extremely hard to define and almost impossible to anticipate. As a founding member of Icelandic art collective Kitchen Motors, audio/visual artist Kira Kira has been a pivotal figure in contemporary Icelandic music. She has composed music extensively for theatre, dance and film and created a myriad of sound and video installations everywhere from Beijing to New York.

Taking a particular interest in blurring the lines of visual and performing arts Kira has appeared in all kinds of curious venues; in church towers, gallery spaces, abandoned prisons, Croatian breweries and various other curious places, creating lasting images of singing black holes, dueling smoke machines, kite symphonies and exploding cassette tapes across the globe.

For people out there that have never heard of you. Give us three reasons why they should?
People should just come for their own reasons. Curiosity is enough.

Tell us a little about where you’re from.. Do your surroundings affect the music that you create?
I was born in Reykjavík and I have lived there for most of my life. I’m sure that my homeland filters into everything I create, especially as I’m away a lot and I start to miss my loved ones and my hometown. I was in a hotel in Azpeitia, a town in the Basque country, very early this morning and I started humming to myself half-asleep some lyric fragments I realized were for my country. I got introduced then and there to a deeper love for where I come from, than I’d ever known.

It was a little bit scary, but also quite cozy to find out like this that home is such a magnet. Even in a paradise like the Basque country.

If you could have played on or written any song, what would it be?
First thing that comes to mind is Ennio Morricone’s ‘The Good the Bad and the Ugly’ (main theme). I’ve been fascinated by that piece since I was a child and still am. That was a fine moment in the history of whistling.

How did the band come in to being? And where did the name come from?
I was living in an old samurai region about 3 hours from Tokyo in 1999 and I had a dream. I was about to play live on a radio show and the producer needed to know the name of my band. At the time I was just starting to make music on my own after playing in a couple of other bands and I didn’t have a name, but in the dream I said without hesitating: “Kira Kira.” I didn’t know what it meant until later, it’s Japanese for “Sparkles” and also the chorus of a great Guitar Wolf song. I once saw singer wolf scream “Kira Kira” hanging upside down from a pipe above the stage while running a comb through his hair.

What is the most memorable gig you have played, and what can we expect of your live set at Ja Ja Ja?
I think my favorite is at Shibuya O-Nest in Tokyo last December. It was a release concert for my last album, Our Map to the Monster Olympics and I had 5 amazing friends playing with me. We were on fire that night.

Another memorable one was at Ikra Club in Moscow last year where I played as a duo with trombone player Kári Hólmar and the crowd was so warm to us that we had to rent a helicopter for all the presents we got: Rainbow mittens and a painting among other fine things.

At Ja Ja Ja I’m playing a duo with my friend Pétur Hallgrímsson who is a rare wizard at the ukulele and lapsteel. I’m bringing my favorite noise-makers: The music boxes, the light sensitive theremin, my beach box kalimba, a borrowed red monkey guitar, a small mountain of toys that rattle and good vibrations. We will play for you some beautiful, melodic noise.

If you were asked to curate your own Ja Ja Ja night, which three acts would you choose and why?
Klive (IS): A young, experimental musician who brings a bass and a big smile to the stage where he is accompanied by 3 brass goddesses and a nifty guitarist. Great live show, dense with juicy beats, field recordings from the domestic revolution in Reykjavík and curious noises.

Lau Nau (FI): Her music is quite unique. It’s very organic and easy going. It’s hard to explain but it’s as if her music just happens in the same way a lightning strikes or a tree splits open. It’s fascinating.

Heidi Mortensen (DK). She is a true virtuoso loopster. I had the pleasure of playing with her in Copenhagen early this year and her show just blew me away. She dishes out one floorkiller after the other and performs all the beats and loops live without a laptop. Respect.

We’d like you to make us a Nordic themed mix-tape. Which five tracks would you choose?
Jóhann Jóhannsson (IS), ‘The Sun’s Gone Dim’ from the album IBM 1401 –A User’s Manual
The Shining (NO), ‘Goretex Weather Report’ from In The Kingdom of Kitch You Will Be A Monster
Skúli Sverrisson (IS), ‘Geislar hennar’ from the album Sería
Sami Kukka (FI), ‘Aamuyöllä’ from his latest album Menen veteen
Arve Henriksen (NO). ‘Opening Image’ from his album Chiaruscuro

mp3:> Kira Kira: ‘Gremlin Holiday’

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The launch party for Ja Ja Ja takes place on Thursday November 19th and has been curated by Radio 1’s Huw Stephens. The influential DJ chose (from a huge list of potential acts): I Was A King (from Norway), Kira Kira (from Iceland), Francis (from Sweden) and TV Off who we have here answering a few questions about the history of the band and what we can expect from their performance next week. The Finnish outfit were described by one chin-stroker at a recent performance as “like Sophie Ellis-Bextor meets Moby”. The band kicked the crap out of that guy and he still eats through a straw. Luckily, it was all put down to “high spirits”, and TV Off were able to return to the studio to start on the debut record.

For more info, make sure you follow Ja Ja Ja over on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jajajanordic and of course, the official website which will contain all up to date info: http://www.jajajamusic.com

Tickets for the launch party are on sale now and priced at £5. Grab yours here.