Iceland rocks

GusGus is synonymous with pleasure. The name could easily be an Icelandic word for an extravagant, state-of-the-art musical journey.

But it's not. It's an avant-garde collective of musicians, producers, filmmakers and performers from Reykjavik - a band that was formed during the making of the movie "Pleasure" in 1995 and has since created a unique mixture of electronic grooves, funky bass, dreamy synths and all-pervasive vocals.

That's how it can go in Iceland: a few creative people, a moment of inspiration and something new and extraordinary happens.

The odd name GusGus comes from Rainer Fassbinder's 1974 film "Angst essen Seele auf" ("Fear Eats the Soul"), lead singer Daniel Agust Haraldsson told Deutsche Welle.

"It's where a woman who works at a bar invites a black guy to her apartment to have some 'couscous.' When she has the guy over for a meal, they also make love. We like that mixed context of the word."

Dance floor

GusGus has released eight studio albums and every one of them tells a different story. "Polydistortion" hit international stores in 1997. The lead single "Believe" garnered the group a lot of attention, including the tag "new Sugarcubes," which is misleading because GusGus never had a fractured post-punk approach. The band's enigmatic pop sensibility combined with electro-funk mutant house beats is more of a dance-floor sound. "David," from their fourth album "Attention," has been their most successful track.

The band's latest album is entitled "Arabian Horse" - a name Daniel Agust said is a metaphor for love since the Arabian horse is such a beautiful animal. It's a funny name, too, the band's lead singer said, "because we are not Arabian and we are not horse people."

"Arabian Horse" may be labeled their most maturely creative album so far, but it certainly is the most extroverted album that GusGus has done, Haraldsson said. "It's not quite pop, but it's really close to it. All the arrangements are really accessible, not too long, very colorful and diverse."

Diverse and strong

GusGus started out as a nine-person multimedia collective, including Iceland's indie pop singer, Emilliana Torrini. Today, GusGus has five members: Daniel, Earth, Hogni, Birgir and Stephan. For "Arabian Horse," they set up a studio in a summer cottage deep in the lava fields, where they experimented with their extravagant electro sound.

They used Doepfer analog modular systems and string arrangements, accordion and banjo. And a Finnish saw player, Haraldsson said.

"We incorporated a lot of elements we hadn't used before, like a string orchestra. We were open to experimentation on this album and it seems to have worked out well, at least for us.”

Haraldsson said they used a different approach for each of the ten tracks on the album. "We just went on a trip with every track and we kept going till we reached the destination lyrically and musically,” he explained.

New sound

With "Arabian Horse," GusGus has reached that destination: the perfect balance between mainstream pop and underground dance music. Elements like an addictively ferocious bass, a smooth synth groove and occasional vocal duels between singers are highly engaging.

Simply living in Iceland with its extreme weather conditions is great inspiration for their music, Haraldsson added. "It can change from one minute to the next, from sunshine to a storm. There are always surprises in our environment; we are always affected by all of these surprises," he said.

Iceland may be more influential, but GusGus also has strong links to Germany. The Cologne-based label Kompakt released the band's last two albums and Germany is at the top of their tour list. GusGus' discography even includes a remix for Kraftwerk, the most influential band in the world of electronic music.

"Germans appreciate our music"

The band has been around the world, Haraldsson said, but the biggest audiences are in Germany and in Poland. "I don't know what it is in the mentality of Germans or the Eastern Europeans, but we seem to have a link there, something in common," he mused. "Many other countries also make electronic music - maybe there’s some electricity between us."

Along with Björk and Sigur Ros, GusGus is considered to be part of Iceland's "holy trinity" in the music industry. Some of the individual artists also work with other bands or do solo projects. Daniel Agust Haraldsson, for instance, took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1989.

What counts in the end, Haraldsson said, is not copying anyone or anything else.

"Follow your weirdest ideas and try to be as original as possible," he said. Of course there is nothing really original, he observed, there is always a predecessor; but "you can give your role models an original twist."

Author: Jakov Leon / db
Editor: Louisa Schaefer