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Events Local

Who’s behind?
The initiative to establish a new music portal about Faroese music – was taken by Elin Brimheim Heinesen. Elin is a Faroese amateur musician herself. Her whole working career has been in media and culture. For many years she has been dreaming of making a portal about Faroese music, where she could use her skills and her many international contacts to shed light on the Faroese music scene and strengthen the Faroese music industry.

up a plan for a music portal project, and they made a deal that allowed her to use the domain name for this purpose. Elin started right away preparing the creation of the music portal and to make agreements with people, associations and authorities working with and for the music industry.

All the work up until now has been done on an unpaid voluntary basis, but, hopefully, the portal can get enough revenue in the future from advertising, support, and donations to keep it running for a long time. Any revenue will go directly to the continuous improvement of the portal and further marketing of Faroese music. And now the portal has become a reality. and she also updates the related Twitter and Facebook pages on a daily basis – with the help from different contributors. Content providers Contributors are Matthew Workman, a journalist from Oregon, and host of the Faroe Islands Podcast, who will be followed by several other regular content providers.

Agreements have been made with a lot of Faroese musicians and others in the music industry, who provide us with information about music activities, events, releases, and so on. These people will help us in our efforts to help Faroese musicians attract an international audience. But we would like to reach even more people, so we invite anyone interested to join us. The more people contribute and the more information about Faroese music we can gather in one place, the merrier. That is what a portal is for. So dear musician and anyone interested in providing content, if we haven’t made a deal yet, get in touch, and let us – together – create the best music portal ever! When everyone constantly keeps us updated with information about their music and performances, is even more valuable, and will be even better able to give many, many more the opportunity to learn about all that surprisingly diverse and excellent music that pours out of these remote islands.

Why?

The Faroe Islands – an archipelago in the North Atlantic above Scotland halfway between Iceland and Norway – is a melting pot of creativity. Music, singing, song-writing, alternative rock music festivals, and modern art all play a very important role in life in the Faroes today. Some believe that the Faroese must have a special creative gene because the amount of music and artworks pouring out of these islands is astonishing – especially when you consider the modest number of inhabitants in the Faroes of approximately 50,000 people. No more than could fit in an average football stadium in a major city. Still, everything is on the menu here: rock in any shade, electronic music, jazz, blues, country, metal, punk, rap, traditional singing and dancing, folk music, choir music, classic and so on. Tórshavn, the capital, even has an excellent symphony orchestra, which most people would consider impossible in a small town inhabited by only approximately 20,000 people! The Faroe Islands produces an astounding amount of music. The country has a record label devoted to Faroese music that puts out about one album per week. To produce proportionally as much music in America, a label would have to release 6,000 albums from American artists… every week! A new generation of musicians is taking the stages. With one foot solidly planted in tradition and the other one in the creative sphere, they are now entering the international scene and are slowly gaining international recognition in increasing numbers. None has had an international breakthrough or gained superstar status yet, though some are very close to making it. Just think of the scene in Reykjavik 20 years ago. This achievement has not happened by accident. Some fiery souls have worked hard to lift and professionalize Faroese music by, for instance, creating a Faroese record label, establishing a Faroese music school, and organizing many musical events, which gave the musicians a scene to perform on and lots of opportunities to develop. This amazing work and its results have also, to an extent, attracted some international attention.

makes the difference But there has been one missing element: an online source with collected information presenting the Faroese music scene, currently and regularly updated in English, to help make people aware of this hidden treasure in these small remote islands in the North Atlantic. Who would have imagined that this far away place with so few inhabitants could deliver such a diverse music scene that produces music of such high quality? They won’t come here to look for it unless someone makes them aware of it. But now, is here! And we are determined to spread the word and give the Faroese musicians a more powerful voice that can punch a hole in the massive information noise out there, by presenting the facts in an appealing, interesting and orderly way – and thus help Faroese musicians gain the worldwide recognition and fame their quality and skills entitles them to.