Sindri Snær Sigfússon’s band, which started as a one-man-project and grew to an Icelandic-collective of up to seven people, performed their first show in Vienna at Chelsea, one of the concert venues in the Gürtel area. In light of such we hopped off to the lively Brunnenmarkt, situated only a few blocks away. There, Seabear settles themselves in and began to play “Arms” behind a fruit and veg stall, filled with autumnal chanterelles and exotic mangos. Women in headscarves doing their shopping, an enterprising Turkish fruit seller ballyhooing his goods, an old hat-wearing building super leaning at the stairway, a young Asian schoolboy tiptoeing through the picture, workmen sipping their beer at a sausage stand, masons sitting on a scaffold calling out “Super!”, and a black-haired and dark-skinned boy holding his shopping bag—they are all of them getting their bit of the fluffy Indiepop, Lofi-Folk sound of this Nordic looking quartet. Despite the national radio station fm4 breathing down Sindri’s neck – he is meant to hurry up for a pressing interview – he manages to keep his stoic face. After having finished “I Sing I Swim”, he admits, “I kind of have to run to that thing” as if to beg for our understanding before he dashes off.

seabearia.com