Event info

Concert in Kaldalón, Harpa 13th of September @ 21:00 with German band Strom & Wasser with special guest appearance by Egill Ólafsson, Ragga Gröndal and Haukur Gröndal.

In the past years Strom & Wasser [Power & Water], lead by their singer, songwriter, bass player and producer Heinz Ratz, have concerned themselves primarily with German realities. In 2011 Ratz visited many local refugee camps on his Tour of a Thousand Bridges. He thereafter put together the award-winning project The Refugees with musicians and vocalists that he had met there on his tour. Prior to this, Ratz, born in 1968, called attention to homelessness and pollution with spectacular campaigns; three of his productions received the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik“ [German Record Critics' Award]. With the double album Reykjavík, a new cycle begins. It is the first of a planned series, in which Strom & Wasser work together with musicians from different European cultural metropolises. To Ratz this project is also about unforeseen encounters, fresh impressions and lively exchange. Why turn the attention towards Europe now? While the whole world is discussing the debts of Greece and other southern countries, Heinz Ratz is irritated that the originally humanistic European idea is increasingly being drowned in financial discussions. “In the many conversations with refugees during our last project, I also noticed a huge discrepancy between how we as Europeans think of Europe and how refugees perceive Europe,” Ratz explains.

With Reykjavík and the planned following productions in other cities he wants to draw the attention once more to the cultural richness of the continent. This of course involves reflections about homeland and the foreign, the volition to overcoming borders and the pursuit of freedom, the contemplation about the own identity and the joy of a productive togetherness.