“Gakktu hægt um gleðina dyr,’ it’s something like, ‘Calm down, take it slow,’” Árni says above the clamour of pinball machines and jingling tokens. “My dad used to always say it to me before I’d go out. It’s the best Icelandic phrase.”

Sveinbjörn Thorarensen is a recurring pattern in the patchwork of Reykjavík’s culture collage. As a solo producer he’s Hermigervill. On the afternoon that I meet him, in the basement headquarters of the Icelandic Dance Company, he has three gigs lined up after our interview. The last time I saw him he was banging his head against a piano and hypnotizing the Reykjavík City Theatre crowd with his theramin.