You have found the perfect music to keep you dancing through the long dark night. Dark in vision, yet packed with light and instantly memorable melodies. The songs exude diamond sharp sadness, paranoia, passion and intensity in a setting of carefully constructed melodies and computerized rhythms.
In the world of musical prodigy, arranger, producer, programmer and songwriter Bardi Johannsson (see further info and pictures on special section ), nothing is left to chance yet in the world he portrays everything is chaos. Bang Gang is his chosen vehicle for projecting his dark musical fantasies, where phantoms and ghosts sing in whispers, surrounded by celestially beautiful melodies. It is no coincidence that the only cover he has recorded has been the David Lynch song "In heaven" from the movie "Eraserhead".
You wouldn't know it by listening to Bang Gang today, but the group started as a surf-band. Bardi and his friend Henrik Baldvin Bjornsson released a single and a video for their surf-style song "Listen Baby". This promising direction which could have made them the Beach Boys of the Arctic Ocean was never realized as Henrik quit the band and later formed his own band, called Singapore Sling. Meanwhile Bardi, though a great fan of rockmusic, decided to make popmusic on his own terms and started laying out his plans for Bang Gang
One of their friends and collaborators in the surf-version of Bang Gang was Esther Talia Casey, an aspiring actress and singer, whose voice Bardi thought was perfect for his songs and he persuaded her to keep on working with him. No sooner had they recorded Bang Gang's first song than it was used on the soundtrack of the Icelandic movie "Blossi 810551".
That got the band noticed by local label Sproti, who were making a compilation to showcase new Icelandic music. Bang Gang recorded a song called "Sleep" to be included on the compilation. As a result Sproti signed the band to a record deal and plans were made for an album to be released in the fall of 1998. At the same time East-West France got interested in the band and signed a contract with Bang Gang and Sproti to release a single in France. Since then an album deal has been made with East-West France.
Bardi started worked on the debut album. The first song from the album, "So alone?" was released in the summer for the radio and became an alternative hit in Iceland. A video was made by accomplished director Ragnar Bragason and made it into rotation on nighttime MTV on the strength of the song and video. Bardi has since composed the score and contributed songs to Ragnar's first feature film, "Fiasco".
The fact that the video was shown on MTV made waves. Audience requests got the song to the number one spot in the top ten of the most popular alternative radioshow in Denmark. This home page has received many visits from people all over the world as evinced by fanmail from Denmark, France, USA, Sweden and Norway. A South-Korean corporation has used "Sleep" in an advertisement. They are a testament to the power of the new world wide communication net.
In 1999 Esther competed for a place in the very selective Icelandic Drama College and was chosen to take part in their three year drama program. Because of the intensity of her studies she decided to curtail her work with Bang Gang. She is still though an active collaborator when time allows. Bardi then recorded two songs with brilliant new singer Vedis Hervor Arnadottir and one song with Lhooq's acclaimed singer Sara Gudmundsdottir, as Bardi felt they complimented Bang Gang's style. He prefers to use female singers as they are a perfect contrast to his own voice.
Those songs and older ones will be released on their international debut album in France in October 2000 and will feature remixes by renowned French musician Kid Loco.
