BACK STORY: ICELANDIC AIR

● Damon Albarn first travelled to Iceland to escape the pressures of Britpop fame in the mid-’90s. Watching TV one day, he saw a programme about the country, with scenes of black sand beaches reminding him of a recurring dream he’d had as a child. Impulsively jumping on a plane alone, his long history with Iceland began. He encouraged the other members of Blur to travel there to record parts of their eponymous 1997 album, later bought a house in a suburb of Reykjavik, and in 2021 was made an Icelandic citizen.