Lárviður Release Concert in Mengi

Fersteinn is celebrating this album coming out in Mengi, Reykjavík, tonight. It is released by Traktorinn. We will play old and new material. The oldest piece will be Lardipésa and the newest are two Hörkvartetts.

We are happy about this amazing cover made by Sam Rees. The record is available both digitally and physically from here. The previous record from Traktorinn will also be for sale. So, release concert in Mengi 21:00 tonight, 2000 kr entrance.

Field//// premiers The Loft

The Canadian improvising quartet field//// asked me to do a “grid” for them after our collaboration in 2015. What that means is a chart for a structured improvisation. Each of the writes a grid which only indicates time, what people are playing, and which instrument they play. No other information is allowed. No Italian.

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So my grid is called “The Loft” and will be premiered at the Graffiti Gallery in Winnipeg, September 22nd. The concert will also include other grids by the members. Should be an interesting show.

Toyen fil og klafferi premiers Leyfðu barninu on Ultima Festival.

Tomorrow Toyen, fil og klafferi will premier my new piece Leyfðu barninu for bass clarinet, bassoon, viola and cello. It forms a pair of pieces with Leyfðu hjólinu which the same ensemble premiered and performed earlier this year in different parts of Norway, Sweden and Iceland.

 

The concert starts at noon at Sentralen, and is part of the Ultima Festival 2017. The concert will include pieces by Hafdís Bjarnadóttir, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Lars Skoglund and the clarinetist of the group Kristine Tjögersen.

 

 

Látrún released by Traktorinn

Traktorinn has just released a new record of some of my electronic music. It is called Látrún and is available here:

 

 

It is a work consisting of recordings, samples and electronic sounds where everything fits into a scale of 16 notes in just intonation in a scale developed by fellow S.L.Á.T.U.R. composer and architect, Magnús Jensson. Sounds of flutes, bowls, folk harps and purely electronic sounds in layered pictures.

Two interviews

Before a  concert I had  on March 4th in Mengi there were two interviews, both in Icelandic relating to the concerts and the concept behind working with old computers.

Pétur Grétarsson did an interview for the radio program Víðsjá which will be there just a little while longer,

 

 

http://ruv.is/sarpurinn/ras-1/vidsja/20170302

 

 

and Elísabet Indra with Mengi did an interview for Mengi.

 

 

 

Fersteinn in Mengi tonight

Tonight, my group Fersteinn will perform in Mengi Reykjavík. We will be performing variuous things from our repertoire, including more percussive music, more instrumental, with electronic sounds and soft recorder music in just intonation.

Here is an interview in Icelandic, offered to you by Mengi:

 

La Noche Oscura Del Alma

 

 

 

Tonestrukt Records, Los Angeles, California has just released this record, La Noche Oscura Del Alma. It is an 80 minute elaboration on recordings of a traverso baroque flute as played on by Perth born Australian flautist Georgia Browne who approximates the 16 tone scale of Magnús Jensson with various alternate fingerings and bends. Most of the sound material derives from these recordings.

As the title suggests the piece relates to the Carmelite saint San Juan de la Cruz or Saint John of the Cross’s work of La Noche Oscura del Alma translated to English as Dark Night of the Soul or perhaps more famously The Long Dark Night of the Soul.

 

 

Haltrandi Rósir by Fersteinn

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My band Fersteinn has just now released this record called Haltrandi Rósir.

It has some early pieces that have remained popular concert numbers for a while now.

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It was recorded by Elisabeth Carlson in Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland.

The album is the first release of a new label called Traktorinn.

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Horpma in SPIN Magazine

I only found out a few days ago that my record Horpma that came out in 2011, was number 17 on an end of year avant list in SPIN Magazine that same year.

 

 

 

 Quite surprising as I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an avant list in SPIN magazine. It is quite an interesting read. I hope I´m allowed to quote the thing on Horpma:

17. Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson, Horpma
A pointillist st-st-st-st-stroke from an Icelandic composer whose Autechresque sense of rhythm blurs the lines between organized, random, and sheer madness. He makes a 27-instrument ensemble sound like rain falling on a Guitar Center.

 

 

Konsert fyrir Lokk – Featured on SWR2

 

 My concerto for this instrument:

 

 

 

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was recently premiered in Harpa concert Hall in Reykjavík as part of Nordic Music Days. It was performed by the Caput Ensemble and soloist Berglind María Tómasdóttir. The concert was played on the radio, not only in Iceland but is featured in the radio program Jetzt Musik on:

SWR2

In Southwest Germany. Many thanks.