Music from Iceland

Originally released in 2006, Mount A is Hildur Guðnadóttir’s debut solo album. Recorded alone with her cello and released under the pseudonym “Lost in Hildurness”, it marked the beginning of a deeply personal body of work created as a space to “hear my own thoughts”. Twenty years later, its music continues to resonate, inspiring new orchestral reinterpretations on This Will Be Us. This edition also marks the album’s first-ever release on vinyl.

In April 2009, Iceland’s neo-classical export Ólafur Arnalds created the 7-song series Found Songs – recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter. With artwork contributions from fans via Flickr, this modern release awakens memories of a tradition that seemed lost in the digital age we live in. Born in 1987, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself completely in a wor…

Where to From marks the much-anticipated solo return of Hildur Guðnadóttir, a composer-collaborator equally versed in spectral pop, avant-garde, and soundtrack work. Reaching beyond her acclaimed film and TV scores, Guðnadóttir crafts nine intimately reflective pieces for strings and choir—drawn from years of voice memos and melodic fragments—where minimalist restraint meets moments of luminous warmth. The album’s texture hovers between Scandinavian melancholy, sacred choral atmosphere, and a me…

"Tár is a concept album consisting of 20 tracks, curated, composed and produced by Icelandic musician Hildur Guðnadóttir. Featuring contributions from Cate Blanchett and cellist Sophie Kauer, and performances from Dresden Philharmonic, London Contemporary Orchestra (conducted by Robert Ames), and London Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Natalie Murray Beale), the album served as the soundtrack to Todd Field's 2022 psychological drama film, Tár, starring Blanchett in the lead role as Lydia Tár. Hi…

Volker Bertelmann and Hildur Guðnadóttir hardly need an introduction - their distinct styles have graced the speakers of pretty much anyone enamored with experimental music in the last decade, and between them the two have chalked up an enviable canon of successes. Bertelmann, under the Hauschka moniker has explored the extremities of prepared piano improvisation, and Guðnadóttir has taken cinematic, explorative cello music into a new era of depth and passion, so to hear them both together is a …

End of Summer captures Jóhann Jóhannsson's journey to the Antarctic Peninsula to discover the calm scenery of a landscape changing seasons, barely influenced or even noticed by humanity. The Super 8 film is a comforting study of a peaceful setting in one of the most crucial and endangered areas of our planet. Accompanied by rich and detailed field recordings of the surroundings, this footage forms a perfect foundation for Jóhannsson's musical compositions, performed together with fellow musician…

This album is about resonance: on 'Saman', which means 'Together', Hildur melts her voice with her cello, connecting the two instruments together. The result is a highly involving and moving album, recorded, mixed and mastered in Berlin. Hildur's sylph-like vocals contrast beautifully with rich cello tones, resolving the tension between light and dark to produce a unique listening experience. Renowned bassist Skúli Sverrisson guests on 'Heima'. This is Hildur's 4th album for Touch, after 'Withou…

It may well be the case that the whole modern classical scene suffered from a possibly fatal case of over-familiarity and over-exposure these last few years, but it would be a shame if a genuinely gifted musician and composer like Iceland's Ólafur Arnalds was lumped in with the vast majority of his contemporaries - the guy is just the real deal. And if there were any doubts about his talents, Arnalds created and released a new song a day for one whole week during the month of October this …

Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadóttir presents a new album, Leyfdu Ljósinu (trans. "Allow The Light"), recorded live at the Music Research Centre, University of York, in January 2012, by Tony Myatt, using a SoundField ST450 Ambisonic microphone and two Neumann U87 microphones (NB -- it was not played in a concert environment and there was no audience). To be faithful to time and space -- elements vital to the movement of sound -- this album was recorded entirely live, with no post-tampering …

**Now available on vinyl for the 1st time in a deluxe gatefold sleeve, with 3 bonus tracks not on the CD** Hildur Gudnadottir is a gifted cellist with an impressive history of collaborations that includes work with Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Johann Johannsson, Skúli Sverrisson and Ben Frost among many others, as well as being a member of Iceland's notable Kitchen Motors collective. She first came to our attention on Pan Sonic's epic 'Katodivaihe' album from a couple of years back, he…

The vinyl version of Olafur Arnalds' debut album is back.