The Faroe Islands are a small archipelago in the North Atlantic, roughly in the middle between Iceland, Norway and Scotland. Its size reaches not even the size of London city and only a small part of the land area is used for agriculture or is inhabited. Only 51.000 people are spread over the 18 islands of which only 17 are inhabited. On these Islands you can find trees only in parks or private gardens, outside of the villages there isn’t a single tree growing. Cliffs rise upright from the sea, some reaching a height of several 100 meters. Steep, stepped, barren mountains tell from the volcanic origin of the archipelago. Thanks to the Gulf Stream the climate is very mild. During the summers, the temperature rarely rises above 20°C, but on the other hand it is also rarely below 0°C during winter. The days of summer are long and bright, while the days of winter are cold and dark. Storms can keep ferries and helicopters from operating so it might happen that you cannot leave your island. Without the ferry or planes you cannot leave the archipelago anyways. So what are you going to do, to kill time on long, dark winter evenings? Music.
The Faroe Islands have a music scene which is hard to compare. Measured by the population, the music scene is huge. There is no genre you can’t find there. May it be classical music, Rock, Pop, Hip Hop, Jazz, Blues or Metal. Countless festivals and concerts are held during a year. And here they are pretty innovative. There are concerts held in private living rooms as well as in caves under the islands which you can only access by boat. There are stages of international scale as well as in small clubs and pubs. Many musicians play in more than one band. For metal fans, this isn’t unusual, in the metal scene it is pretty common that musicians play in several bands. But on the Faroes they go one step further and don’t care about genres. You can see the very same musicians on a Jazz evening, at a Pop concert or in a Black Metal band – sometimes at the same evening.
The Faroese are - rightly so - proud of their music scene that is not only very diverse but also of outstanding quality. I am still able to claim that I have never seen a bad Faroese band. Bands I personally don’t like, yes. But a band, that can’t play their instruments, that can’t write songs? No. They even have their own symphonic orchestra. And to this special, small and yet big music scene they dedicate a whole week in March. In 2014 the FAROESE MUSIC AWARDS (Faroese: Føroysku tónlistavirðislønirnar), short: FMA, have been invented where they award the best of the country. But this is just the top of a week that’s running under the name „Spæl føroyskt vika“ – play Faroese week. In radio and TV only Faroese music is played and in the capital Tórshavn every day concerts are held, and to some of them there is free entry.
This year I belonged to a group of journalists, bookers and organizers who have been invited to this week and the FMA to dive deep into the Faroese music scene, learn about Faroese music and meet Faroese musicians. But not only this: Moreover, they organized several trips for us to learn something about the islands themselves as well. The weather god was on our side and we had the best weather for most of the time. Yes, I even got a slight sunburn on the third day.
I wanted to get as much as possible out of my time on the Faroes. Therefore I arrived one day ahead of the others. When I arrive it is raining and storming, the waves smash high against the rocks. This isn’t a weather to go outside. But it’s ideal to do some small errands, buy a Faroese SIM card (as they are no member of the EU the EU roaming rules do not apply here) and visit the Red Cross second hand book store. I spend the evening with a friend so the weather doesn’t matter. The next day I start into the spæl føroyskt week.
