Today has been ok – featuring Iceland

More photos I took on various days through the summer, to and from work. I recently shared a music video for Tonik's new song, Snapshot Two shot and directed by Margret Seema Takyar from Iceland. You can watch it here. The song also now happens to be on my playlist. Since we're in the vicinity, coming up is an assortment of songs by Icelandic artists. I was introduced to some Icelandic music recently (other than the big names like Sigur Rós and Björk), and these Vikings, boy, they're something, to say the least. Beautiful, queer, unique, stringy voices, with basal and futuristic sounds. You be the judge. Look, listen, and, well, learn.

Of Monsters and Men is an upcoming Icelandic band, which you've probably heard of by now. Little Talks is one of their most popular songs, and reminds you almost instantly of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. See for yourself.

Emilíana Torrini's voice does queasy and magical things to you when it goes through your ears and shoots to your brain. Today has been ok.

And no post on the music from Iceland is complete without Björk Guðmundsdóttir. I couldn't resist putting her last name in there because I find the idea behind these last names sweetly fascinating. Most last names in Iceland are a combination of your father's name and your gender. So if your father's name is Gunnar, and you're a girl, your last name is Gunnarsdóttir (or something like that), which means Gunnar's daughter. No guesses for Gunnarsón. Here's Björk's Crystalline, with a music video directed by the one and only Michel Gondry. With her audio and his visuals, they're a match made in heaven. Watch the making of one of their videos here.