Fiskur/Fish
Ghostigital, Björk, Skakkamanage, GusGus, Rass, Jimi Tenor, Ben Frost, Scope, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir, Hugleikur Dagsson, Finnur Arnar, Hikaru Toda, Kristján Loðmfjörð
DVD with 150 minutes of visual material of varied sorts
Octavo with articles, repipes, short story (part 1), interview, comic strips, drawings etc.
Poster by this issue’s artist Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir
Matchbook
1 kr. coin
Design: Gunnar Vilhjálmsson
Trailers
Artist of the issue
Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir
Her work carry a true admiration for the loft and shops selling old books and antique. Still it is not the history of those things, their origin or meaning that counts, only the fact that they are old. Ingibjorg takes a stance among multiples of the past, old books, postcards, photos and other printed matter. By such means the mountains are derived from black and white, yellowish postcards, the waves from old hand-painted photographs and so on. She than, with the aid of a computer, prints out these artifacts. Her works are a game of layers, both in the smaller collages and her bigger wall-pieces. … Everywhere in her imagery one will come across a collage of an old, national image-scape; waterfalls, mountains, birds, fish and dogs. Nowhere will she leave an empty space – reminding of the Baroque era when artists sufferd from fear of emptyness. As in other works here the imagery refers to symbols one can interpret in various ways in light of art history (Deerhorn, clocks, apples, open chest and a wig), all has its known source of inspiration, especially in Surrealism. This ornateness nevertheless deprive these symbols from all meaning leaving but a play of forms. The artist samples form various fields and mixes at will like a DJ. This method gives Ingibjorg?s video art a playful expression.
Excerpt from the article by Markús Þór Andrésson published in Issue 1/Fish.
Video clips
Design
Stills
Jimi Tenor
Doing same same same kills your spirit.
an interview with Jimi Tenor, director of ‘Tri Abortenstein’
Rafskinna: Tell us a little about your film, “Tri Abortenstein”
Jimi Tenor: I did it with my friend Jusu Lounela. Jusu had some cash so he paid for the film and other expenses. Others that film costs were light rental and smoke. We loved smoke. Basically we wanted to make a film and show it in some parties later on to get the costs back.
R: Does it reflect your taste in films in some ways? Are you e.g. a big fan of the classic b/w horror movies; Dracula, Frankenstein & co.? Are there maybe some other kinds of films that influenced you in making “Tri Abortenstein”?
JT: Well, that was done long time ago… I knew that we had limitations in our technique. To shoot in color was a problem with color balances and stuff so we thought it´s better to film in black and white. I was the cameraman and I just went for it. I didn´t have any real knowledge, but I wanted to make nice lights and long takes. We did rehearse quite a lot to do some of the takes. I was doing the focus too. It was fun.
We were not big fans of black and white or horror. I think Jusu was into more mainstream comedy and me a into bit more obscure stuff. I was really impressed by “Le grand bouffe”, ” Themroc” and movies in that vein.
R: Without any clear comparison to dr. Abortenstein, is your approach to music comparable to a mad scientist, you being a solo artist, experimenting with all kinds of sounds and instruments?
JT: Yes, one could say so. I go to my garage and fool around pretty much every day. I try to avoid doing same things over and over again. Try not to be too “professional”, whatever that means. More like trying to have kid´s mind. I prefer to play with cheezy organ that a Hammond, because that way I feel there is less pressure to be a so called pro.
R: But you have worked with big groups of people, even a symphony, when you play with a group there is often though some kind of Sun Ra-ish decorative sci-fi, cosmos neo-hippy, free jazzy feeling to it, if that is a description; is this something you are trying to aim for?
JT: I am trying to be happy and have an interesting life. Sometimes touring can become like a job and then you know you have to have a break. It´s wonderful to see your band members when you feel like “it´s great to be together again”. Not like “jeez, here we go again, to make money for our families.”
I have a message for the kids in the audience, which is that the most commercial music is not always best for your life. and that unusual, strange concepts can lead to a better world. Or at least your immediate world can become better that way.
R: There is even a closer spiritual association I see in you and the scene around the Japanese ‘hardcore/folk’ band Boredoms, again it is this cosmic Sun Ra thing, but you also have in common with the Boredoms people that you work in some other fields of art beside music in a way that implies some DIY, experimental punk background.
JT: Yes I admire EYE and the Boredoms a lot. I always have been a DIY guy and that has been my forte and also downfall. Sometimes it´s better (especially commercially) to let professionals take care of some aspects of your career. But same time you become more mainstream as you go that route. Boredoms are hard to define, but I have always been impressed by their shows whether it has been art school fun music or hippie psychedelic workout. Doing same same same kills your spirit.
R: One more on kindred spirits; Icelanders often feel much closely bound to the Finnish people then to their more related other Scandinavian People, melancholic isolation and cold weather are maybe factors there; do you feel some mental kinship with Iceland or Icelanders, musically or otherwise?
JT: Oh, yes. It´s easy to talk about the hardness of weather and isolation. Finland has been isolated in a different way that Iceland (living next to soviet union, I mean) and now things are opening up slowly. I see Iceland very different culture though. More outgoing and international. Finland is strange, but I love to struggle and I love the nature and my garden.
R: Quite many Finnish bands have been to Iceland for the last 15-20 years, almost all some indie/underground acts, many connected through a Bad Vuugum/dr.gunni relationship (Jimi Tenor of course, Keuhkot, Radiopuhelimet, Brussel Kaupallinen, 22 Pistepirkko, Honey B and the T-bones). Are there some particular trends in Finnish music worth checking out right now or should we just wait patiently for the next Lordi album?
JT: There are a surprising amount of different scenes in Finland. People I don´t know anything about. I don´t mean by this that most of this music has any real quality. The opposite actually. But I think there has been a nice amount of really original acts from Finland recently. Bad Vugum is of course a label I really am proud that is from Finland.
The metal scene is strong. Children of Bodom is quality. The jazz is a bit self conscious, but I think will get better soon.
R: I think I saw Tim Gane of Stereolab once quoted as saying that making original music was more important then making a good one even though he mostly makes very accessible pop music, do you connect to this view in terms of experiment and accessibility or is it something you rather aim for in making films?
JT: I think originality is a bonus. Sometimes one has to steal….
Interview with Kristján Loðmfjörð
Remixing Whales
an interview with Kristján Loðmfjörð, director of ‘Hvalalíf’
‘Hvalalíf’, a remixed version of ‘Nýtt Líf’, Icelandic full feature film from 1983 is featured in Rafskinna’s first edition. A young, Icelandic filmmaker and an editor, Kristján Lodmfjörd, is responsible for this as well as other ‘remixed’ versions of some Icelandic nostalgic visual material. In remixing this works Kristján re-edits pre-existing material, dubs it and adds to it his own soundtrack so it results in a different work with a whole another storyline than the original material.
I was always much more into film then the fine arts but I often found film makers too rigid and academic to my taste so I wanted a fresh perspective and studied art in Netherlands.
On my second year there I came home and needed something to work on and then found an old ‘Nonni and Manni’ videotape that I had taped long time ago in a box at my parents place. I watched it again and was so taken aback that I wanted to work with this material in some way.
What inspired me as well was that I had bought some ‘rip-off’ films on the streets of New York were you could even see the audience walking into the movie theatre and I found this so amusing that I started to think about ‘ripping-off’ a film that was still being showed at the major theatres, edit it my own way and sell that version on the streets. From this idea I started to work on some kind of ‘rip-off’ version of ‘Nonni and Manni’ that is to this day an illegal version because I never got into contact with the director, Ágúst Guðmundsson. I have actually only officially screened it on some mini scale ‘Lortur’ art festival but have been psyching myself up to contact Ágúst to be able to screen it more.
Oberinspektor Stephan Derrick hits the mincing machine
Everybody that saw my ‘Nonni and Manni’ remix really liked it but more on a nostalgic level then just because it is some kind of masterpiece. So I decided next to do a treatment on Derrick (German police TV series popular for years in Iceland) since it was also such a big part of Icelandic TV history. Everybody watched Derrick when I was growing up in Iceland.
I bought a Derrick DVD and was really impressed by one episode where we see a new and bright side of Derrick and he falls in love with a victim. This episode was therefore ideal for me to show give Derrick a whole new perspective. I dwell on this idea for quite some time and this is probably the best crafted remix that I have made but I didn’t get permission for it so ‘Hvalalíf’ is the first legal remix that I have ever done.
The Secret life of Whale killers
I don’t really remember why I approached the ‘Nýtt Líf’ remix with this whale theme in mind. It has probably to do with the strange dialogue that had been going on in Iceland about the decision of starting to hunt whales again. Everybody suddenly panicked and thought that the whole world was going to boycott everything Icelandic but you could see that this was only a temporary reaction.
I lived in the basement of Þráinn Bertelsson (director of ‘Nýtt Líf’) at the time and since his office was above mine I could always hear squeak in his chair when he was working so the author was always present and watching over me which was really a special kind of pressure but also just very funny.
Þráinn liked this idea of mine from the beginning but I hadn’t thought of any special theme. I started by working on the montage, editing scenes and imaging what the characters were talking about and therefore the editing probably is more stylised in this movie than in other remix work that I have done. In my first draft I had several different ideas about in what direction I should take this and then I invited Þráinn to take a look at it and he spotted some allusions to whales immediately and from then on just wanted this to become a one big whale joke.
We both liked the idea of include some kind of ‘Gerpla’ element in the plot where the two warriors are very keen on slaying some whales without noticing that it has gone completely out of style. I worked on this idea for a week and when Þráinn saw the results he consented it so I kept on working in that direction.
Nýtt Líf also has this nostalgic element I am always looking for, the movie is an Icelandic cult classic and I really wanted to do the material a just treatment even though the plot is nonsense. Even when I am doing remixes without permission I want to please the original author. When I did ‘Nonni and Manni’ I was always somehow sure all the time that I was pleasing the original director even if I didn’t have the gut to ask for permission
I want to do some more remixes and from Icelandic source material. I really got into the groove when I was remixing ‘Nýtt Líf’ and wanted to do a whole series with different Icelandic directors. It should be easier now that one director has acknowledged this method because directors might either like this approach or just take it personally and think that I am intentionally ruining his work. Which is ridiculous because I am just doing something new out of it. This project has to be taken on as a hobby of mine and be done just for fun. I can’t see me doing this as a full time job with a budget and deadlines. Then I have also ruined this nostalgic factor that has to be there.
Whale slaying, for or against?
I really like the taste of whale meat but if the hunting them infuriates so many then we can just as well skip it. I am diplomatic in that sense, I can just give in easily on the issue and it doesn’t touch me that much.
In doing ‘Hvalalíf’ it was great to be able to do something that comments on a political hot potatoes without taking any kind of political stance because that leaves you with much more freedom. That is why I allow myself just like in so many other issues to be neutral in order to leave a much bigger critical space to exercise your judgement from.