#also iceland story....

[boonesfarmsangria]

At the end of the month, Yannis & The Yaw will release the EP Lagos Paris London, a collection of songs that sees Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis team up with late Afrobeat legend Tony Allen. Sessions began back in 2016 but were uncompleted when Allen died in 2020, Philippakis getting the tracks to the finish line with Allen’s trusted team of collaborators in Paris over the past couple of years. It makes for an excellent melding of sounds, a union of Allen’s restless, toppling grooves and Philippakis’ knack for dexterous rock riffs and yearning vocals. Last week, Niall spoke to Yannis over Zoom about how rehearsals for Yannis & The Yaw’s live shows are coming along (see here for ticket and date details), his favourite memories of working with Allen, where the Yannis & The Yaw project could go next and more…

Hello Yannis, how’s it going?

Yeah, good. I got back last night after being away for two weeks, so it’s one of those where the hot water isn’t working, the internet doesn’t work, the house smells like bins…

Haha.  I saw some videos you put up from rehearsals. How are they going?

It was loosely rehearsing, it wasn’t full band. I’ve been going over to Paris semi-regularly now for a few years, obviously to finish the record and since then to explore how to do the live show because without Tony being around, we have to be thoughtful about how to do it. We’ve also got to create more material for the show, because the EP is only about 20 minutes long.

Like an early Foals show!

Yeah, exactly. It’s like when we first headlined Brixton and we played for 40 minutes, the shortest ever headline set at Brixton Academy.

I was at that gig. It wasn’t just that you didn’t have loads of material, it was that you played the songs you had really quickly too.

The nerves controlled the tempo that day.

So have you cracked that nut in terms of what you’re going to do for the Yannis & The Yaw live shows?

We jammed a bit with this Malian guitarist so we’ve got some extra material. We’re going to do some improvised sections, extend certain sections, jam out bits of the songs that people know, and then we might do a couple of Tony Allen covers as well.

We’ve got an amazing band. We’ve got Dave Okumu on guitar. We’ve got Seye Adelekan, who plays bass for lots of people and is the live bass player for Gorillaz and who’s really awesome. I’ve wanted to play with him for a long time. Then the Vincents, Vincent Taurelle and Vincent Taeger, who were the producers and musicians on the EP so I’m quite familiar with playing with those two. And Kit [Monteith, a member of Foals’ live band] on percussion. As a collective, we’ve never played together so there’s definitely a big question mark about how it’s going to come together. But it’s exciting because I have absolute faith that the other guys are going to come and elevate all of the music. There’s some nerves, I want it to do justice to the EP and to Tony and for it not to suck.

Who’s playing drums?

Vincent Taeger. He’s perfect for it. Tony really admired a couple of younger drummers. One of them is Femi from Ezra Collective and the other one was Vincent. Vincent had worked on other Tony Allen records and had been in Tony’s orbit for a long time and knew him intimately to the point where when we were mixing the record, both the Vincents could tell me exactly the frequency that Tony would want his kick drum mixed at and things like that, they know it so intimately that they almost can translate what Tony would have wanted. Because Vincent was in on the sessions, it just felt right.

I love the EP. What’s the full timeframe from when you started it to release?

How many years? I mean, do I have to say?

Yeah.

It’s probably like six or seven years, or maybe the better part of a decade. I think we first got together in 2017, I’m not that good with dates.

I read 2016.

It might well have been 2016.

What’s it like living with a piece of music like that for so long?

For a while, it was OK, because I quite liked to pull out this little trump card late at night at parties when everyone’s playing their own music and I’d be like, ‘Oh, have you heard this stuff I did with Tony Allen?’ and whack it on at three in the morning. It would most often be heard in that kind of setting.

I didn’t want that chapter to close, so part of the reason why I think we didn’t hurry to finish the tracks was that we enjoyed the collaboration with each other. And also, it wasn’t something that was driven by a record label or by an idea of completion. It was an exploration with Tony and we enjoyed jamming with each other. I think that we would have probably done a whole album had things turned out differently. We were enjoying each other’s company, we enjoyed playing so there was a part of it which was pleasant that there was this material bubbling away on the back hob for a long time while he also made other records and I was focusing on Foals. The problem with that obviously was that we didn’t get to complete it while he was alive so that’s the bit that’s the bit where now there’s a feeling of slight remorse that we just didn’t finish it.

But in terms of like having the songs living alongside you unfinished, it wasn’t something that was aggravating to me. I quite enjoyed the fact that they were just there in the ether but it does now feel awesome to have it done and have it out. I think that that needed to happen once Tony passed away. They needed to be completed.

Thinking back to when you first went to Paris to meet Tony in the studio, how did it go in terms of what you were expecting versus what actually happened?

I didn’t really know what to expect, it was all quite French in terms of the communication! Genuinely, when I got to Paris that morning, I didn’t know whether I was playing on a written piece of music that I was going to be slotting into, or if it was one tune or many. In terms of expectation, it was quite loose. All I knew was that I was going to go into a studio with Tony Allen and I was excited. I guess I was a bit anxious about how it was gonna go. I didn’t want to get there and be like, ‘Oh, this isn’t clicking’ or ‘I’m a letdown’ or something.

The not-knowing what I’m walking into would freak me out.

It didn’t freak me out but I just didn’t know. I had a guitar and a loop pedal. I knew if I needed anything, I could find it on that loop pedal. It’s quite a Luddite way of working but I had about 80 loops in this little box that I’d go around with. I went in there and it wasn’t necessarily frosty, but it was kind of quiet. It was a cold morning, pretty early, it was December, it was a bit grim outside. And Tony was sat there in this basement studio and it was already pretty smoky in there.

What was incredible about it was the realisation that we were going to build something from scratch, them saying, ‘Oh no, there’s nothing written, you’re not playing on something that’s pre-written, we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna jam and you’re gonna play with Tony’. That moment was like, ‘Alright, OK’. Once we started playing and just how natural it felt, it’s been one of the peaks of my musical life, the fact that it flowed so well with Tony and there was this innate understanding and appreciation that felt like it was a two way street.

What your favourite memory of hanging out with Tony?

Probably Café OTO because it was the first time that I hung out with him fully socially in London. He came to play a small show at Café OTO in Dalston. It was amazing to watch him onstage, post having played with him, in this intimate venue. He was beckoning me over into his roped-off area, we were drinking whiskey together all night. To see him for the first time in a social context and to remember how much of a legend he is but then also to just be hanging out drinking Chivas Regal with a single cube of ice and a plastic cup well into the night, it was good fun.

Tell me about how some of the songs on the EP came to life. What about the opening track, Walk Through Fire?

Walk Through Fire was super quick. It’s basically the riff that I was checking my set-up in the studio with, it almost felt a bit like ‘Whoa, steady there’ because Tony was already playing along to it and and the producers were recording already. One aspect of the EP was things would happen very quickly in the studio, and then there’d be long lunches. I’d always be like, ‘Guys, can we just get back into the studio now?!’ I had to slow my rhythm down to conform with that way of working. It was Tony’s way of working as well, not to force stuff. He didn’t do many takes. There’s actually audio of me asking him to play something again and him refusing, saying, ‘No!’ and leaving the room.

My voice was feeling really strong at that point as well. I’d come straight off a tour and my voice felt elastic, like the range was kind of at its best. I remember that moment of singing some vocal takes and kind of seeing Tony not expecting that to come out of me. He seemed to be more into my voice than than the guitar stuff.

That must have given you confidence.

Yeah, even though he collaborated widely, I think that’s a point of newness, where it’s a kind of rock energy meeting with his style. We had some discussions about the lyrics, I wanted to make sure that he was included in it, and also to find a point of difference with Foals, so they are less introverted and more outward looking. He wanted the songs to be engaging with the streets or society more.

How did Rain Can’t Reach Us come about? I love that tune.

I do too. It’s one of my favourite pieces of music I’ve been part of. I was basically scrolling through my loops and when we were on that one, people got interested, Tony was like, ‘Let’s try that one’. There was probably five layers of guitars, so one went to the marimba, one went to a keyboard, one went to one guitar and another guitar and there was four of us playing that those parts in the room. And then Tony came in, and then I sang over it. There was definitely work done to it afterwards in terms of all the strings and the keys and stuff, but the first time we played it with Tony, that was it.

Is part of you sad it’s completed now?

Yeah, definitely. I’m really pleased to be releasing it, but there’s also a corner of it in which there’s sadness that we’re not doing it together, even the interviews and stuff. It would’ve been fun to have done them together. I’m looking forward to people hearing the EP in full and playing the shows to celebrate it. The idea of the Yaw means that there is a possibility in the future to collaborate with other people or do a record, some sort of continuation of it. It’s not necessarily a full stop or a dead end, but obviously the material with Tony, this is it, there’s no more.

Is this somewhere you could maybe find a home for the stuff you did with Karl Hyde that’s never seen the light of day? You also once told me you wanted to make a Greek folk record…

I need to figure it out. The Karl Hyde stuff would be awesome, I don’t know where he’s at with that. I’m feeling a pull to wanting to do more with Greek music. I’m not sure where that sits, it might be with this or it might be something different. I need to think it through a bit more. I like the idea that this record is postcards from different locations from different cultures, so maybe a future record could be like that. But this pull towards Greek music is definitely happening and I need to deal with that. That’s the big thing I’ve learned from this project with Tony, it is important to throw yourself into wherever you’re being pulled and finish it as well.

What about Foals, what’s the plans for that at the moment?

It’s at the stage where I think we’re enjoying having a bit of time off, all of us individually. We’re chatting quite a lot. It’s [Foals guitarist] Jimmy’s 40th today, we’re jumping on a call later to virtually wish him happy birthday because he’s on the other side of the world right now. We’re probably going to go to Iceland to hang out towards the end of the year to and we’ll know more about what we’re doing after that. We’re going to go to a remote house in Iceland and see what happens

[szsariii19]

Welcome back to Trench!

In honor of the new tøp era have my pictures of Trench from this summer

(📍Stakkholtsgjá, Iceland)

[hygienic-soap-dispenser]

HWS Nordics as DnD Characters - Part 1

So uuh I've been thinking about the best boys as DnD characters for a while now soooo I drew them and did a character sheet for each of them!! (Den and Swe will be coming in part 2 pinky promise 🙏)

Part 2 (Den, Swe)

For simplicity, I started them off on Level 1, hence no subclasses here. Also, there are def some things I need to work around, especially with the whole DnD Beyond thing, but I still hope y'all get the vibe I'm going for with these

✨ Their backstories, subclasses, and combat styles can be found under the cut ✨

Norway

Race: High Elf Class: Druid Subclass: Circle of the Land Background: Outlander

Having lived a good portion of his childhood among the fjords, mountains, and trolls, Nor has always had a deep connection with the land around him. His friends would help him survive, connect to the land, and learn to harness the power within it. He let it power and inspire him throughout his life. When Nor was part of his unions, he would often escape to the land to feel connected to himself again, and this is where he drew his power and magic which he still uses today. He is a free spirit within his land, and he will never let anyone take that away from him again.

In combat, Nor mainly focuses on spells and has a preference for ice magic and thorns, and he is excellent at taking advantage of the terrain around him. He is also one of the designated healers for the Nordics, along with Swe. At close range can fight with clubs, maces, light swords, or axes.

Finland

Race: Half-Wood Elf Class: Ranger and Rogue multiclass Subclasses: Gloomstalker / Assassin Background: Soldier

Fin has trained most of his life to be a warrior. Since his earliest days, he was tasked to defend the land and prevent any would-be invaders; it was his duty. But how could he with neighbours like these? He is small, and they are big, they are strong, and he is weak... but he is persistent. He will not let them win. For you see, Fin has some advantages: he is nimble and he lives in a land shrouded in forests and bogs. Thus, Fin became something else: not the strongest or the fastest or mightiest defender, but the most efficient, using his stealth and quick thinking to get any advantage he can.

In combat, Fin is focused on archery but is flexible and can jump into the front with dual-wielding weapons when needed. Is effective at any range: physically strong but even more nimble. He hides in the dark, ever watchful, striking at his enemies. He often forgets to cast Hunter's Mark.

Iceland

Race: Half-High Elf Class: Sorcerer Subclass: Storm Sorcerer Background: Hermit

Raised on a lonely island far from those he loves, surrounded by the raging oceans crashing upon his shores, the wind and rain shaping the docking and crashing of ships to his land, Ice has always been familiar with the winds and tides. Some even say that he came to being during a mighty storm, giving power to the tempest within that powers his natural abilities. Now, with his mastery over his inner storm, he tries to use his powers to safely guide ships, change the winds, and maybe even see more of the family and friends he longs to hold close.

In combat, Ice focused on lighting and ice spells, and still has some trouble controlling his fire-based spellcasting, but is working on it. Fights at a distance and can use Flight to maneuver around the battlefield for the best advantage. God help you if he attacks you from above.

[crow-of-paradise]

Hauganes and Mývatn, Iceland on 35mm

[glitterghost]

Belle (2023) 🌹

[mer-se]

I could cry

[thewinedarksea]

we went to iceland! (pt 2, colorful version)

[cappurrccino]

love it when a long book starts with 60 pages of skippable forewords and notes, it's like realizing a 50 page paper is all footnotes and references

[jathun]

Uh-oh

I'm getting really engrossed in one of my old wip stories

[nicegaai]

I WANTTO WRITE ABOUT THE MICRONATIONSSSSS I WANT TO AMKE EVERYONE SEE WHY THE MICRO ARE SO COOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLL I NEED TO GET WEIRD AND SPECIFC WITH THEM AND BORDER ON RPF AND DO CHARACTER STUDIES ON FUCKING NIKO NJKO AND MOLO/SSIA AND

[newspeciespodcast]

A podcast? About New Species?

Hi Tumblr, i'm Zoe and I like to interview scientists about the species they find, identify, and describe.

It turns out there are new species of pretty much everything; mammals, lizards, and beetles but also flowers, deep sea worms, starfish, and even short-tailed whip-scorpions. There are so many stories behind these species too, from the ways that they are named (for Willie Nelson Songs, Warhammer 40k characters, and Icelandic presidents) to the places they are found (in remote Brazilian caves, on top of Mount Olympus, and even in their own backyards).

We also go on some fun tangents, including exploring naming conventions, a deep dive into weevils, and some bonus episodes (free on Patreon) where friends of the pod and I review cheesy horror flicks for scientific accuracy.

I want to help scientists share their work because taxonomy is important. Understanding evolutionary relationships is important. Conservation is important. There are a thousand reasons why the work of finding new species matters, and in these episodes, researchers share them all.

So join us! As we explore the biodiversity of our planet with the scientists who help us better understand it. Edited to add: Website: newspeciespodcast.net RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/3a86c1f0/podcast/rss This podcast is on Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and Apple Podcasts.

[asatroende]

I’m working hard on the modern edda and while thinking about how some things would have to change because the culture behind certain actions isn’t the same anymore (re: rape as revenge in any form, no matter what the revenge was for; the revenger doing the raping would in modern times be seen as the villain instantly even if that wasn’t what was intended)

The people actions of this is hard in its own right but then I remember what the culture used to be (cattle farmers) and what we are now (not that) and realising that we have absolutely no reason to demonise wolves anymore, meanwhile the mythos hinges on civilisation being okay with and eager to kill wolves to protect cattle

[goryhorroor]

at least I don’t think there’s any horror movies on these (and I mean like directly inspired by these and less like movies kinda with that concept). I love historical horror and there needs to be more.

I encourage to read these stories cause they’re so interesting (first one is kinda not real but the myth sounds terrifying; also yes accidentally put alligators instead crocodiles) + any idea can be a horror movie (there’s literally a horror movie about a rubber tire)

[heljar-heimur]

Most people do, or should have. But I have encountered people who didn't believe Iceland was real. We barely exist on some maps.

Airport peeps are often interested in the Icelandic passport because its very pretty. But I've also heard of border control guards who had to check if the pass was real because they hadn't heard of the country thought it was a fake pass from a fake country.

I kinda have to agree with this anon. Saying just what country I'm from tends to be the "safest" option. Especially since when I tell people what country I'm from, their response is "is that a state of Mexico?"

Another story is of here in Berlin, when I went to open a bank account, the person that has my passport to add me into the system or smth asked me where I'm from (meaning country) so I answered. Then she said," No, what country are you from" I motioned to my passport and answered verbally again. She then said," I have never heard of that country. I don't think it'll be in the system." It was

--

Jesus. Don't people have geography class when they're kids?

[sso-maev]

PUTTING JORVIK ON THE MAP: SIZE AND LOCATION

WHERE IS JORVIK?

Finding Jorvik’s exact location is actually pretty easy.

���Jorvik, located somewhere between Norway, Iceland, and the British Isles, of which it was once part, is a nexus of worlds.” - Jorvik Calling, Prologue.

This is still a pretty large area, but one that’s significantly narrowed down by reading Four Stories from Jorvik. Anne’s segment Midnight Sun establishes that Jorvik is at the very least partly above the arctic circle, to the point where Anne can see it while riding by Jorvik Stables in the middle of the night. This also puts Jorvik pretty close to the tectonic rift between the European and American continental plates, which handily explains why Jorvik is a volcanic Island.

HOW BIG IS JORVIK?

Jorvik’s size requires a bit more speculation, and I’m relying on two book sources.

1: Jorvik stables is a bus trip from Jorvik city.

Anne lives in Jorvik City but goes to school with the other soul riders in Jarlaheim, and has her horse at Jorvik stables. We know that she goes there by bus, so the distance between Jarlaheim and Jorvik City shouldn’t be too large; I’m capping the max length of the bus ride to about an hour.

2: Valedale is less than a day’s ride from the wineyard.

In The Legend Awakens, Elizabeth and the soul riders are heading to Pi’s Swamp and sleep over at the Wineyard. The soul riders wake up late and leave after having eaten breakfast and lunch. The sun is ”at its highest point in the sky” when they leave, so probably around 1-2PM. It’s twilight when they arrive, and the Baroness comments that they showed up in time for the evening feeding of the horses. Since the days are shorter in late October/early November, which is when this chapter takes place, we can guess that they arrived at around 5-6 PM.

Mapping out the most likely routes for these two trips, the route to the Wineyard is about a third of the bus route from Jorvik City to Jarlaheim. Additionally, the bus would drive on average ~70 km/h because of Jorvik’s smaller roads. The average walking speed of a horse is 6 km/h.

Now, the Valedale-Wineyard trip could take anywhere between 3-5 hours, but I’m inclined to believe that it’s on the lower end of that scale to keep Anne’s commute as short as possible. That leaves us with a 18 km long ride, and a 54 km long bus tour that takes 46 minutes. Pretty reasonable!

RESULTS

With these new measurements, we can figure out the actual distance between different places on Jorvik. Most importantly, we can measure the absolute width from Jorviks westernmost to easternmost point: 92 km, or ~57 miles!

Having figured out an estimate of the island’s size and location, we can now put Jorvik on the map!

[marinersubmariner]

Detail crops from my latest art

And some talk about this AU:

The concept was that this is a canon divergence branching off after TFA (hence Ben-with-scar). One of the many scenarios I like to consider is if they had a full role reversal within the course of the story, so in the middle act Ben turns to the light side just as Rey falls to the dark side. I think of it like an extension of the "missed connections" tragedy of TLJ, where they get close and then bounce off each other again, but this time in opposite directions. Like wavelengths at different frequencies, crossing in the middle and then peaking apart. And then the extreme discordance of them swapping sides makes it that much more satisfying when they finally fully align.

I like reformed Ben so much, I like getting to him earlier in the story, I like the potential for dark Rey to be much more vicious than him (given her baseline murderous rage in "hero" mode), and Ben having already learned from that and drawing on his own experience to pull her back.

While I wouldn't want to trade out the Kef Bir ocean fight and there's no need for a redundant lava battle, I do love the hypothetical idea of them on Mustafar because the volcanic environment is so intense and operatic. Even though TROS technically uses Mustafar, it's wasted as such an unrecognizable throwaway, whereas I wanted it in a way that specifically related to Vader and actually visited the castle. And here I just think it's fun to play it up as an inversion of the snowy Starkiller Base setting—dark Ben and light Rey surrounded by ice, light Ben and dark Rey surrounded by fire.

Also… I'm addicted to atmospheric space Icelands (cf. Lah'mu). Speaking of which, yes I used the final scene of The Northman for reference. (sorry they're not naked)

If I had really committed to my preferred headcanon for post-Kylo Ben I would have given him a white saber, but I've come to associate Ben so strongly with the color blue that I can never pass that up. And aesthetically the contrast of the blue and red just looks cooler and more interesting. I like blue too much!!! Kyber healing will have to wait for another day.