Saturday 16 November 2013

Holtstangi by Magnús Bergsson released toay on VQR Static

The third release on VQR Static is Holtstangi by Icelandic field recordist Magnús Bergsson. The recording was made on a beach on 19th of June 2012 close to the wooden pier at Holstangi, near the small village of  Flateyri in northwest of Iceland. Part of the recording was first released on Magnus's website but this is the full recording. Magnus describes it as follows:

On Önundarfjörður (fjord) in northwest Iceland is a small village, Flateyri. During the winter, there are lots of avalanches in the area. 

In October 1995 a huge avalanche hit Flateyri. Many houses were wiped away and 20 died. Several other avalanches and bad wetaher closed the road to the village so the only way for rescue team was from sea. 

The first rescue unit used a 45 year old pier at the bottom of the fjord at Holtstangi. This pier was built in 1950 in case avalanches closed the road and other communication to Flateyri 

This terrible avalanche on that October night in 1995 demonstrated how important this pier was for the community, so it was rebuilt in the spring 1996.