Árstíðir

Arstidir Haunted Tour Bus Phenomenon

On Friday the band had its first official gig of the Russian tour, location: Tver. We got stuck in traffic in Moscow which made a 170 km route last for over four hours. After a quick stop at a jazz club where we had our pre-gig dinner, it was off to soundcheck at tonight’s venue, which had the interesting name “From Dusk til Dawn.” With a great audience and positive energy on stage, the gig turned out to be very powerful and entertaining.

On our way back to Moscow after the show, we were 10 minutes from our hostel when out of the blue the tour bus broke down, again. For those who don’t know about our previous machinary-meltdowns, this is the fourth tour bus of Árstíðir which has broken down in approximately four weeks. First there was the bus in Czech Republic, then one in Bulgaria, then one the day we arrived in Moscow, and now this. This has to be some kind of a record!

Standing ovations in Moscow

Aging rock veterans Nazareth were playing in the anointed concert hall of the International House of Music in Moscow yesterday. They say “love hurts,” but the loving vibes saturating the air in our part of the building was anything but painful.

For the first time since last year we were reunited with our friends from iamthemorning. Their incredibly talented string players Filip, Ilya and Alina joined us on stage for our second set, transforming our string duo into a string quintet. We premiered several songs from our new album on the concert which earned us two standing ovations from the crowd.

The first cosmonaut in space

“Sergei Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky were good friends of Evgenia,” says our smiling guide, “they came here a lot.” We are standing in the office of the late Evgenia Gnesina, founder and former director of The Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow. Next to us is a piano that Rachmaninoff brought to the school. On an old black and white photo, taken in the same office, we see Evgenia shaking hands with Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut in space.

We are invited as special guests at the school that has instructed many of the Russia’s finest musicians, and been at the heart of Russia’s cultural history for the last century. Our guide points to another photograph: the famous russian actress Olga Knipper Chekhova – married to the late Anton Chekhov.

We are shown around the school which is literally bursting with talent. Everywhere we come across students that are happy to perform for us the pieces they are working on at the moment.

The finale is a meeting with the school choir in the building’s classy auditorium, where we are treated to a 20 minute choir extravaganza that simply blows us away. When asked to sing something in Icelandic we humbly climb the stage and work our way through a few Icelandic choir pieces as well as our own six voice harmony composition “Ekkert Þrái.”