News & Dates
NEWS
OK, so where do we go from here?
The Covid times left me with plenty of time to think about what a sustainable, future live music scene could be like, both here in Iceland and also in general, further afield.
For my part, I don't want to 'go back to normal.'
I want to go forward to new and better ways of doing things, that do not cost us the earth and wreck the planet in the process.
We cannot carry on jetting around the place in the 'old normal' way. Living here in Iceland, thousands of kilometers from anywhere, with a population the size of a small European city, that presents a special set of challenges, but we have to find creative ways to find solutions.
For me that could mean smaller intimate scale local events, both indoors (house concerts anybody?), feasts, good old fashioned folk club scale events, and out doors garden concerts, camp fires, tailor made performances in special locations in the countryside, and all with a hefty dose of participation.
While we have discovered the possibilities of Zoom and other on-line options as a useful tool, for me, it can never replace live events. I still have my iconic UK Musicians Union 'Keep Music Live' sticker, firmly glued to my guitar case.
I have always really valued the sense of community and sharing that the best of the folk scene has offered. I firmly believe that our music works best at the scale and in the kinds of settings that it grew out of, so let's see what we can do.
BBC Folk Awards nomination 2018
The track 'The life of a man / Greensleeves'
on my 2017album Hadelin, was nominated as
Best Traditional Track in the 2018 BBC Folk Awards.
You can listen to it right here.
the music streaming platform
that treats artists fairly!
Whatever we musicians may think about streaming, it seems pretty obvious to me that it is going to be the technology that most people will be using to access recorded music for the foreseeable future. The actual process has plenty going for it. It removes a lot of plastic from the environment and cuts out a load of shipping and warehousing costs. Mind you, those servers are using a lot of megawatts and they come with their own significant environmental impacts.
A well known and much discussed big problem with streaming services, is that the income they generate is very unfairly distributed. For the artists that make the actual music that they stream, the income they generate is very small indeed. Another big problem is the way that their algorithms define people's listening choices.
My son Simon Metson in England has developed a new music streaming platform. It is called Audiotarky and it aims to put fairness and privacy in front of algorithms, advertisers and shareholders, while keeping a close eye on its environmental impact.
With technical development now in place, Audiotarky is open for artists to sign up. This is not an exclusive deal, so you can have your music on as many other platforms as you like. If Spotify floats your boat, you are welcome to carry on collecting the crumbs they send your way, if the seagulls don't get them first.
The success or otherwise of Audiotarky will obviously depend on building up a great catalogue of diverse music and, along with that, an ever growing subscriber base.
You can check out Audiotarky at:
Going global,
flowing with the stream
My two vinyl albums for Topic Records (Layers -1977 and All Things in Common - 1979) have been on Spotify for some time, since Topic Records digitised their back catalogue.
All my CD albums are available on multiple streaming platforms as well, so Traces - 1999, Jewels - 2004, Outsiders - 2008 and Hadelin - 2017 are all available, not just on Spotify, but also on iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, Youtube Sound Recording and a bunch of others worldwide that I've never heard of such as Akazoo, Claro Música, Kanjian, Zvooq and Shazam to name but a few.
The two albums that I have made under the Funi duo name with Bára Grímsdóttir (Funi - 2004 and Flúr - 2013) are also out there.
I doubt that the combined income from all this will run to a Mars bar, but you never know, somebody in South America or Russia might discover the delights of hearing Lord Bateman, The Seeds of Love or some traditional Icelandic songs.
The Cruel Mother as ballad dance
Connecting with our northern roots at Nordic Harp Meeting in Viljandi, Estonia.
October 21st 2017
video by Katja Nyuppieva
...and here is The Cruel Mother as it appears on my 'Outsiders' album
Funi standing by some lava on a cold April day.
You can see the snow storm coming behind us.
PERFORMANCE DATES 2024
Over the past year, as well as returning to the unique Sidmouth Folk Festival in England, playing with the great Polish / Ukranian band DagaDana in the Reykjavík Arts Festival and organising and playing in the Vaka Folk Festival, here in Reykjavík, I have been really enjoying regular activities here at home, such as the Reykjavík Trad Sessions and Sagnavaka sessions at Ægir bar in Reykjavík.
Now the October sees Bára and I heading back to the excellent Nordic Harp meeting and in November I'll be doing a little solo tour in England - full details below. Autumn also sees the return of the monthly Söngvaka sessions, which I run with Bára Grímsdóttir, and also regular meetings of Kvæðamannafélagið Iðunn, full details of which along with extensive archive recordings can be found on their website at:
Here are key dates for autumn 2024
Friday 13th September
Concert at Fríkirkjan, Reykjavík
part of
Vaka Þjóðlistahátíð
(Vaka Folk Festival)
Reykjavík, Iceland
A full harvest time feast of
Concerts, Dancing, Workshops, Sessions
Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th September
European Folk Network Conference
Kaustinen, Finland
Tuesday 1st October
Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík
Lecture
'Upp upp mín sál'
Hallgrímur Pétursson's
Hymns of the passion
in the oral singing tradition of Iceland
Thurs. 17th - Sun. 20th October
Nordic Harp Meeting
Lund, Sweden
November 7th - 16th
Solo tour in England
My first UK tour since the plague wiped out the last two
Friday 8th November at 8.00
Bodmin, Cornwall
Bodmin Folk Club
St Petroc’s Parish Centre,
Priory Road, Bodmin PL31 2DP
Sunday 10th November at 7.30
Crewkerne, Somerset
Speedwell Hall, Abbey Street,
Crewkerne
Tickets £12.
Advance booking essential
For bookings and details contact Meg Rose at:
meg.rose - at - btinternet.com
Monday 11th November at 8.00
London
The Cellar Upstairs
The Alpaca, 84-86 Essex Road,
London N1 8LU
Tuesday 12th November at 7.30
Long Whatton, Leicestershire
Tigerfolk
The Falcon Inn, Main Street, Long Whatton, Leicestershire LE12 5DG
Friday 15th November at 8.00
Sheffield
Nether Edge Bowling Club
8 Nether Edge Road,
Sheffield S7 1RU
Saturday 16th November at 7.45
Chester
SoundBox
St Mary's Handbridge Centre,
Overleigh Road, Handbridge
Chester CH4 7HL
Tickets at:
SÖNGVAKA
Söngvaka dates for autumn 2024 are Wednesday 23rd October, Wednesday 20th November. Söngvaka is an open singing session that Bára and I run every month in downtown Reykjavík. The idea behind the session is to create a welcoming space and opportunity for people to come and sing and learn songs from the Icelandic oral / aural tradition together. In particular, we have focused on the unique Icelandic, two voice harmony songs called tvísöngvar and the sagnadans ballad songs.
Songs are taught 'by ear' and we also have music notation available for people who find it helpful.
The sessions are held at Söngskólinn í Reykjavík, which has a good room for singing (no surprises there) and onsite car parking too.
Booking now for 2024 and beyond
I am always interested to hear from people with ideas for projects and performances.
To enquire about booking
Chris Foster either solo or in the duo
Funi with Bára Grímsdóttir
just send an email to:
chrisfoster.iceland(at)gmail.com
Nordic Harp Meeting
FUNI
Chris and Bára
at
Nordic Harp Meeting
Viljandi, Estonia 2017
The Nordic Harp Meeting is an extremely useful and inspiring annual meeting, known to its regular attendees as the Nerdic Harp Meeting. The meeting brings together skilled and expert performers, teachers and researchers, who are all involved in making music with a big variety of old stringed instruments, such as lyres, kantele, hummel, langspil, langeleik, jouhikko and of course more varieties of harp than you can shake a stick at.
Living in Iceland, we are very isolated from the range of skills and expertise that we are able to access at NHM. To be able to meet with all these people under one roof is a great privilege, and we try to go as often as possible. The meeting takes place in a different country each year.