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First formed ten years ago, Iceland’s post-rock/ambient rock band Náttfari  are back together again. By the way it seems that Náttfari (nightwalker) was a slave who escaped his master and became the first permanent resident of Iceland… thought you might like to know. In their previous incarnation thre were a few EP’s and apparently lots of shows that I never got to see, but they never finished a full length album set. It seems that is about to change, with an album close to completion and due for release later this year.

The bands line up has changed a little, having lost Rúnar Sigurbjörnsson on guitar, who is now replaced by Ólafur Jósepsson from Stafrænn Hákon. Two band members, Nói Steinn Einarsson and Andri Ásgrímsson, formed another band , Leaves, who had quite some critcal success and produced a few albums, albeit of a very different genre, much of which can be heard through their Sound cloud pages.This (Stafrænn Hákon) is the route that I came across Náttfari. Stafrænn Hákon’s rather fine album, Sanitas, came out last year and I penned a few words.

There is still but few tracks to hear from Náttfari, but there are four tracks currently available through their FB pages, with perhaps Dynjandi Leðja being my favourite of those on offer, with its fine bubbling bass line and less obvious take on the post-rock theme.

I am still amazed that a country as small as Iceland can produce so many and such different musicians – of course there are the better known Bjork/Sugarcubes and Sigur Ros brigade, but also Aniima, Stafrænn Hákon and these chaps – all quite different. Iceland too is home to Airwaves Festival with its  predominance of Icelandic bands plus a few more nordic artists and small smattering of US and European bands as well.

On this showing the anticpated Náttfari album should be well worth a listen when it does stagger into the daylight.