Damon Albarn’s Iceland: A pocket travel guide
, 2022-01-17 02:00:00,
Damon Albarn’s love affair with Iceland has lasted for over 30 years. The country has, for him, been a source of immersible creative inspiration and comfort in times of need. In the 1990s, with ‘Battle of Britpop’ raging, Albarn took himself off to Iceland in an attempt to satisfy something that had been gnawing away at him for some time: that, despite being a poster child for the Cool Britannia movement, he’d never felt particularly British.
Iceland is a strange and wonderful place. While its jagged landscapes imbue sit with a sense of the immortal and the ancient, it is actually a relatively new country. Indeed, It wasn’t until 874 AD that anyone decided that it might be a good place to live. The story goes that Ingolfur, Iceland’s Nordic founder, threw two carved pillars over the edge of his ship, pledging that, wherever they landed, he would settle.
They ended up – much to his bewilderment – in what is modern Reykjavik. His family were the first settlers of this unforgiving land, as, unlike many other Nordic countries, there are no indigenous people of Iceland. Perhaps it was its migratory origins that convinced Albarn that the nation was where he truly belonged. In 2021, he officially became an Icelandic citizen. Here, we will be exploring Iceland in the footsteps of the Blur frontman and musical polymath; exploring 5 places that have made an impact on his life and music over the years.
Damon Albarn’s…
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