Tórshavn, the capital city of the Faroe Islands, is probably the remotest place I’ve ever been record shopping. I may have been to a store in a smaller town (estimated 2024 population – 14,099; the nation as a whole comes in at around 55,000), but considering how off-the-beaten-path it is, sitting in the Atlantic roughly half way between Iceland and Scotland, I’m giving it the crown.
We arrived here yesterday after a 90 minute flight from Iceland and I must say the Faroe Islands are spectacular. Small villages and sheep dot the incredible landscape, and the country is remarkably, almost unfathomably, clean. Honestly, the cleanliness is shocking to the point that when Mrs. Life in the Vinyl Lane and I ran across a single piece of litter in the city earlier today (the box for a home pregnancy test – whoever you are, I hope you got the result you were hoping for!) we were actually surprised. So if you love nature, hate litter, and adore sheep, you will love love love spending some time driving around these gorgeous islands (all kidding aside, the Faroe Islands are a special place, truly).
Tórshavn is home to, as near as I can tell, two record stores. Unfortunately one of them, Oceania Records, is only open from Noon to 4PM on Saturdays (yes, you read that right…), so with our schedule I couldn’t check it out. Today, however, we did make it to TUTL Records. TUTL is both a label and record store, specializing in Faroese artists, which is exactly what I was looking for. While there was a very small selection of general used vinyl (and I will forever wonder how a copy of Blue Öyster Cult’s Club Ninja made its way to these distant shores…), most of the space was given over to local artists – both those on the TUTL label as well as others. The shop carries both records and CDs, plus a tiny selection of cassettes.
I was on the lookout for one specific title which I was able to find – Byrta’s self-titled 2013 record. One of the members of Byrta is Janus Rasmussen of Kiasmos and Bloodgroup fame, so I’m very interested in giving this synth-pop album a listen. I also picked up the latest from Orka, All At Once, Supervisjón’s only album, Fast Trakk, and Týr’s brand new viking metal blazer Battle Ballads (“flame splattered” vinyl edition of 200).
All in all I enjoyed my quick pop in over at TUTL and recommend it to any vinyl heads who find themselves in Tórshavn. TUTL releases local artists across a wide range of genres, so there’s something in their catalog for everyone, and buying local is what it’s all about.