In the past, back when physical media was barely hanging on for dear life before the vinyl resurgence, Iceland Airwaves would sometimes put out CDs featuring artists who were playing at the festival. The first of these came out in 2000, the festival’s second year, and it was the most ambitious – a double CD collection of 26 tracks. The last of these produced in a physical format, as near as I can tell and have been able to track down, was in 2007. By time I started attending Airwaves in 2009 playlists were usually created digitally and made available for free download. Those eventually gave way to playlists on streaming platforms and via the festival app (RIP, Iceland Airwaves app).
But this year, for Airwaves’ 25th anniversary, the festival went retro. Well, sort of. For the first time they produced a record, which was provided free to those who attended the festival’s industry conference. This makes sense, of course, given the popularity of vinyl. But here’s the rub – the record isn’t made from vinyl, or more precisely polyvinyl chloride, aka PVC. “Oh, so they use some other kind of petroleum based plastics?” No. A space-age polymer? No. The records are made from… sugar beets.
Sugar beets.
Thermal Beets Records plans to open a record-pressing plant in Iceland in 2026, the first new factory there in decades1, and will use eco-friendly materials in the manufacturing process. “By replacing traditional vinyl plastic with a record made from sugar beets and starches, Thermal Beets is offering a glimpse into the future of record production, with a significantly reduced environmental impact,” stated Guðmundur Ørn Ísfeld, executive producer of A Taste Of Iceland Airwaves 2024 and part of Copenhagen’s RPM Records, the company that pressed this release.
Sugar beets.
The real question is, of course, how does a record pressed using plant based material sound? Well, if this first release is any indication… pretty damn good. My ears certainly can’t tell the difference between this album and traditional PVC. The bass is rich and there is plenty of dynamic range, and I’m sure the technology involved will only improve over time. It features a nice cross-section of nine up-and-coming Icelandic Artists, including one of my new favorites Inspector Spacetime, and the range of styles gives a good sense of the material’s sonic qualities. Overall I came away quite impressed.
I’m not sure how many copies were pressed – though each comes with a QR code and unique download code providing access to a number of digital extras including a unique NFT, and it appears there are 550 of these, so… maybe about the same number of records produced? I’m not sure if any will appear on the retail market, so if you’re interested you may need to keep your eyes peeled on eBay, Discogs, and other such sites. It’s well worth adding to your collection as an Icelandic sampler, an Iceland Airwaves collectible, and a glimpse into what may be the brave new world of plant-based records.
- At least two lathe-cutting companies that have sprung up in Iceland over the last two years, most notably Vínyll.is. But these operations, which cut individual records, one at a time and in real time, aren’t feasible for any releases in significant quantities. Generally they produce small runs of 10-30 records. ↩︎