Whether as cucumb45, Bbbbbb, kid mistik, slurp gurken, icelandic lamb, orange juice man, gurk, q-cumb, holidayboy slurp or simply himself, Bjarki has long since embraced his unpredictable nature. Raised amid a small community in rural Iceland, Bjarki’s influences lay far beyond the usual, tired old tropes of techno. As his numerous aliases suggest, Bjarki rips through the rules and foundations of electronic music with ruthless abandon, producing his own, often absurdist take on the DNA of rave. His notorious live DJ sets integrate and tangle elements of techno, jungle, breaks and IDM, finding unparalleled energy and offbeat soul whenever there’s a pause for breath. In Bjarki’s world, there is room for both blistering gabber and dreamlike, transcendent ambience, two worlds sometimes crashing within moments. Still, as with all agents of chaos, earnest reflection is not Bjarki’s strong suit. Instead, his sensitivity and dedication lies in bbbbbb, his label dedicated to the most exciting and outrageous noises coming out of the underground music scene in his native Iceland and beyond. Notable for its absurdist and wildly imaginative artwork from Hellcat, a visual artist who collaborates closely with Bjarki himself, bbbbbb has provided a gateway into the formidable musical minds of the likes of Kuldaboli, Voluptrus and EOD, as well as Bjarki and his sprawling community of aliases. From 2020 onwards, he will operate the Hellcat sub-label in conjunction with close friend and Polish rave queen, VTSS. Away from his own, occasionally delirious domain, Bjarki has provided key records for a number of other labels. Helping to establish Nina Kraviz’s трип imprint with accidental crossover club crusher ‘Wanna Go Bang’, he immediately pivoted in more adventurous directions with a trilogy of brain scrambling EPs and numerous singles, including a split with Aphex Twin, quickly becoming the artist who has released more than any other on Kraviz’s tastemaking powerhouse. Two LPs, ‘Happy Earthday’ and ‘Psychotic_Window’, both released on influential electronic institute !K7, took Bjarki’s sound in more widescreen directions, without ever halting his relentless creative process. On the former, Bjarki drew a link between the vast, unforgiving landscape of his home nation and the scrambling, delicate IDM at the heart of his music. ‘Psychotic_Window’, meanwhile, was a more understated but no less voluminous proposition, paying subtle tribute to his love of artists such as Coil and Cosey Fanni Tutti, the ‘psychotic window’ being one into his own mind. As a touring artist, Bjarki has appeared at festivals such as Sonar, DGTL, Dour and Dekmantel, as well as many of the world’s most forward-thinking clubs. As tempos rise, genres splinter and the rave gets weirder still, trust Iceland’s foremost electronic absurdist to keep things truly unpredictable.