A new video from Icelandic act Hjaltalín for the song "Sweet impressions". Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpPN1uYAwgc

04/12 - The Bowery, Edinburgh (UK)
05/05 - Bevrijdingsfestival, Groningen (NL)
05/05 - Prinsenhof, Groningen (NL)
05/07 - Passionfruit Theatre, Athlone (IR)
05/08 - Whelans, Dublin (IR)
05/17 - Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh (UK) w/Hjaltalín
05/21 - The Bowery, Edinburgh (UK)
06/12 - Le Nouveau Monde, Fribourg (CH)
06/13 - B-Sides Festival, Lucerne (CH)
06/14 - Salzhaus, Winterthur, Zurich (CH)
06/16 - Chelsea, Vienna (AUS)
06/17 - KFZ, Marburg (GER)
06/19 - Reilfestival, Halle (GER)
06/21 - Umsonst und Draussen, Würzburg (GER)
06/22 - Club Strahov 007, Prague (CZ)
06/24 - Badeschiff, Berlin (GER)
06/25 - Fusion Festival, Lärz (GER)
06/26 - Beatpol, Dresden (GER)
06/27 - Hafen 2 Open Air Festival, Offenbach (GER)

04/12 - Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)
04/13 - Molotow, Hamburg (GER)
04/14 - Centraltheater, Leipzig (GER)
04/15 - Prater, Berlin (GER)
04/16 - Chelsea, Vienna (AUS)
04/17 - E-werk, Erlangen (GER)
04/18 - Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg (GER)
04/19 - Jugendheim, Haldern (GER)

Groningen is a small student town in northern Netherlands. Normally it's pretty calm, but at the beginning of every year it becomes home to one of Europe's busiest music industry gatherings. Eurosonic - along with its only for Dutch artists younger brother, Noorderslag - offers the opportunity to see over 200 performing artists in various venues and has a total number of approximately 18,000 visitors of over 30 nationalities. Apart from the night time gigs, a music industry conference takes place during the day and offers professionals plenty of opportunities for networking and shoulder-rubbing.

The Scandinavian presence at Eurosonic is substantial. Actually there's a mini-Nordic invasion taking place! In total, 32 Scandinavian bands were performing this year (11 Swedish, 6 Danish, 6 Norwegian, 4 Finnish, 4 Icelandic and one Faroese). Furthermore, the conference was attended by various Scandinavian music export associations, ministries, festival bookers, record labels, along with several press and media representatives and other curious types like me.

Day One

The evening programme starts at 8pm and the first band I go to see are Danish act Vincent Van Go Go, playing at the Vindicat which normally houses one of Groningen's student societies and their countless piss-ups. I assume the diabolic similarities of the band's name with the famous Dutch painter must have puzzled the organisers. They play a mixture of reggae and afro-beat, combined with electronic elements. It is still the beginning of the evening and the venue is semi-empty, but the people who are here seem to be enjoying themselves with these well-presented Danes.

Immediately after the gig finishes I rush down to De Oosterpoort, the main conference venue, to see the highlight of this year's festival, the European Union's "European Boarder Breakers Awards" (EBBA). The awards show is broadcasted throughout Europe (or at least this is what the organisers told the journalists) and is presented by veteran BBC host Jools Holland, who's in good form tonight. Among the 10 awarded artists, three are Scandinavian. Not bad! The artists in question: Danish soul diva Ida Corr, pop sensation Alphabeat and emerging Swedish indiepop talent Lykke Li. Alphabeat are not here to collect their award, but Lykke Li and Ida Corr are present, modestly-dressed as the occasion requires, and they deliver professional performances. Although award ceremonies can be sometimes quite amusing, the fact that 5 of the 10 awarded artist didn't bother turning up is quite telling of their enormous popularity. I won't mention now the ridiculous amounts of confetti I had to suffer in order to take some decent pictures...

Later on I head to the USVA, a cultural student centre a couple of minutes away to see Marching Band, a Swedish indiepop pair from Linköping. These guys must have been listening to a lot of The Shins, Belle and Sebastian and Sufjan Stevens. Their upbeat power-pop is equipped with good harmonies and the crowd is very engaged and smiling, despite not knowing the tunes. They clearly steal the tonight's show and on the way to the next gig I just can't stop singing the melody of "Make up artist", their latest single. I hope I get to see them again soon.

Next on my list are Icelandic 'chamber-pop' (is that a genre?) Hjaltalín, who are playing in the Stadsschouwburg, the Groningen theatre/opera house. Their large lineup which consists of, apart from the usual instruments, a piano, accordion, bassoon, clarinet, cello and a violin is perfectly suited for this type of venue. The crowd is mesmerised by their melodies and their Icelandic chart-topping song "Þú komst við hjartað í mér" (Icelandic for "You touched my heart") is the strongest moment of their set. And the singer is insisting that it doesn't sound that cheesy in Icelandic...

Final band for today are playing in the Magic Mirror, a tent on the main square, they are from Malmö, and are called Billie the Vision & the Dancers. Such an unusual name and such an unusual lot! They're definitely not easy to forget, dressed-up like a travelling gypsy circus, and with a drag queen for a singer. But it's not just the looks; their music is profound and leaves you with a strange and beautiful bittersweet taste. Nice!

Day Two

Back again at the USVA, I am chuffed to see at last the Danes Our Broken Garden who are signed by US label Bella Union (Explosions In The Sky, Fleet Foxes, The Dears). They are slow-tempoed and have a vintage feel, with the soft voice and strong presence of Anna Brønsted. A lot of interesting elements here: the guitar is channelled through some sort of an analog synth and is making weird noises, they are using an e-bow and an original Fender Rhodes keyboard; but most interestingly they have a Hammond organ on stage, complete with a not-so-portable Leslie rotating speaker. It's very rare and cool to see bands playing with such vintage instruments, when they could always opt for a digital and much more compact and reliable option.

Folksy First Aid Kit are playing next in the Grand Theatre. Although from a Stockholm suburb, these checker-shirted girls play convincing Americana and their harmonies are perfectly in tune. Despite their young age they prove to be very comfortable on stage. It remains to be seen to what extent a stripped-down, back-to-basics show of just voice/keyboard/acoustic guitar can be interesting for a full-length gig. These girls have got huge potential, especially if they were properly backed-up by a full band.

Next stop is the jazz bar De Spieghel. If this is the first time you're reading about The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, I assure you, it's definitely not going to be the last. Even before these Danes released their first single, Apple chose their song to support the iPod Touch campaign. This band has all the elements it takes to make it big, let alone the attitude, a stunning female singer and good tunes. Musically they remind me of Morcheeba, with a couple of afro-reggae elements, along with some saxophone and trumpet support. I am in the first row and dancing non-stop. What a show!

Young shoe-gazing Icelanders For A Minor Reflection are a good follow-up to the poppy Danes. Their Mogwai-influenced postrock is very sincere and energetic. Unfortunately, it's only me who is getting really tired at this stage!

The last band for tonight, again in De Spieghel, are Norwegians Casiokids, and they are having immense fun on stage. They come with lots of synths and funky dance moves and a deal with British label Moshi Moshi in their back pockets. The fact that they sing in Norwegian alienates the crowd a bit at the beginning, but slowly people start engaging with their naïve electropop. Ones to watch.

I am now knackered and head back to my hotel. Eurosonic was great fun, and although it's an extremely tight schedule involved lots of running between venues and negotiating with Dutch bouncers, it was definitely more than worth the mid-winter hassle. I am already looking forward to next year.

Words and pictures by Vasilis Panagiotopoulos

Hjaltalín is one of the most promising new Icelandic bands that combine pop melodies, male/female vocals and an eclectic instrumentation. Their unusually large lineup consists of - apart from the regular guitar, bass & drums – a piano, accordion, bassoon, clarinet, cello and a violin. Their debut album "Sleepdrunk seasons" was released to great acclaim in Iceland in December 2007 and was produced by Benni Hemm Hemm and Gunni Tynes of Múm. They are currently touring Europe. It's a Trap! caught up with them in the Netherlands and Belgium and had a chat with drummer Axel Haraldsson and violinist Viktor Orri Arnason.

You were formed in 2006, and it was originally intended to be just one show. What's the story behind?

AH: There was this songwriting competition in our high school and we just got together, wrote the song and we were just going to compete in the competition, but then it just started rolling and then we kept on playing.

Did you eventually win the competition?

AH: No, we came second. A lot of people were really surprised that we actually won only the second place.

What is exactly on the cover of your album? How did you choose it?

AH: Originally it's a flower painting by a famous Icelandic painter, but it's been messed up. We took it and some guy made the circles.

VOA: We couldn't use the original one.

How come you got invited to support Cold War Kids? Did the band choose you?

AH: They needed some band to finish up their European tour. Our booking agent contacted them. They had already some other bands to choose from; they liked us and they chose us.

Was it fun playing with them?

AH: It was great!

Which place did you enjoy playing the most so far?

AH: Our release concert in Iceland. That was a great show!

How do you go about writing a song, especially with all these instruments?

AH: Most of the time Högni, our singer, comes up with the basic idea of a song and then we start jamming and people get their own thing into it and then it evolves into a complete song. Generally our singer writes most of the stuff.

Does he write the lyrics as well?

AH: No, a lot of our friends are doing the lyrics for us.

Are you classically trained?

VOA: Everybody has got classical training. For example Axel was in a jazz school, playing the drums and I was in classical school, playing the violin.

What do you usually listen to at home?

AH: No one in the band listens to the same stuff. I listen to all kinds of stuff.

VOA: I listen to a lot of classical music now; I was a lot more into rock and pop before.

AH: Me, rock and hip-hop and everything.

How do you feel about the emerging Icelandic scene and what do you think sets the Icelandic music scene apart from the rest of Scandinavia?

AH: The most famous of course are Björk, Sigur Rós and Múm and all this strange music.

VOA: I think you always have to come up with something new to break through everything else. If you have something new to give to music then everybody will notice you.

AH: If you see Iceland from the outside there is this strange music element going on. Of course there is everything on the Icelandic market, but the things that break out of Iceland are mostly some indie bands.

Any Icelandic artists you respect and admire?

VOA: Of course Sigur Rós and Björk. We used to listen to some guys called Ensimi.

AH: We are into the underground rock scene because we were in a punk band before Hjaltalín.

How did the economic crisis impact your life?

AH: It's much more expensive to tour Europe because the currency is so low in Iceland. I think it hasn't hit us yet.

VOA: It's mainly that we have to pay much more for everything now, but it doesn't affect us mentally.

AH: Maybe it will, I don't know. A lot of people are losing their jobs.

You are currently working on a second album. Is there going to be a different approach from "Sleepdrunk seasons"?

AH: We are discussing these things a lot right now. When we come home from this tour, we are going to record the first two songs that are going to be on the record and then we are going to write more stuff and see what happens.

VOA: I think we are going to stick of course to the elements of the instruments but of course there are going to be some changes of sound, maybe even darker because the last one was so bright. The new songs are a little bit darker.

When is it going to be released?

AH: We are talking about September this year. That's the goal right now.

Words and picture by Vasilis Panagiotopoulos