Eyvind Kang’s “The Story of Iceland” plays just like one might expect something as eclectic as an avant-garde musical rendition of an island nation’s mythological past would. It builds up slowly, broodingly over a series of instrumental, long-winded tracks and draws on Kang’s abilities with the perhaps unusually paired violin and tuba (playing the latter because he arrived late for his first music lessons at school as a youth, and all the other instruments were already taken). With first-hand experience from the country - his mother came from Iceland, Kang lived there when he was younger, and Icelandic was his first language - he translates the loneliness of the place as one might imagine it without ever even having seen the country and packaging it all neatly into a very minimalistic record, without any extra aural “fluff”.

“The Story of Iceland” is, however, undoubtedly music for the patient and probably better suited to those with a meditative disposition. Perhaps I’m poorly equipped to understand Kang’s vision being a child of the fast-paced, hectic life of the digital generation, but I find myself inevitably drawn to the second-to-final track, the brilliantly psychedelic, trippy “10:10 (The Beloved One)”, a song sneered rather than sung, sludgy and equally drawn out as the other tracks, a crashing cymbal continuously winding on to provide the backdrop for the momentuous experience but with more pop undertones, the use of effects-laden, repetitive main and backing vocals to stress the intentionally clicheed message (”It’s not the end…” etc.) and a continuous increase in instrument layering around the original and higly simple note progression. It’s a very dreamy song, and though it goes on for over ten minutes (in fact, 10:10), it is to my ears far more enjoyable than the other thirty which make up “The Story of Iceland”.

Writing the rest off as a minimalistic “world music” effort might be a little too harsh because the soundscapes explored on “The Story of Iceland” are interesting, if a little difficult to comprehend for mere mortals - Kang’s record is nonetheless worth the attention of avid music listeners if for nothing else than the near-orgiastic “10:10″.

Year Released: 2000
Label: Tzadik
Related Link: Eyvind Kang at Tzadik
Date Reviewed: 2004-09-19
Author: Andreas