Watch: Snorri Helgasson – The Morning Is The Loving Hour (Best Fit Session)

17 November 2011, 11:40 | Written by Paul Bridgewater

(News)

(Snorri Helgasson) (Iceland Airwaves)

Our session with Snorri Helgasson was our first during Iceland Airwaves with a homegrown musician. Althiough Snorri now resides in London, he’s spent much of his life in Reykjavík and was a vital part of our introduction to the Icelandic music scene.

Snorri’s past as a member of best-selling band Sprengjuhöllin has given him a fine pedigree but his solo work is imbued with a more serious tone. His incredible debut I’m Gonna Put My Name On Your Door from 2009 is a neat slice of Nordic Americana that sits comfortably next to both Simon & Garfunkel and Ryan Adams.

For this performance of ‘The Morning Is The Loving Hour’, Snorri took us to the Reykjavík Art Museum, where the clean, vast spaces were also used over the course of festival to showcase the talents of Beach House, Austra and Retro Stefson.

We set up shop in the cafe where the staff were only too happy to accommodate us amongst the clinking spoons and hiss of espresso steam. People came and went. What we were doing wasn’t something unique – it was simply another example of how music is part of the fabric of Iceland and its people.