Where to From is a singular, quietly radiant statement from Oscar, Grammy and Emmy-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir, emerging after a decade defined by large-scale projects for film and television and now refocusing on the subtle, private contours of her musical imagination. This is Guðnadóttir’s first solo album in ten years and her debut on Deutsche Grammophon—a label whose reputation for expansive, discerning artistry suits the spare, glowing beauty of her new work. The genesis of the album lies in the unguarded immediacy of daily life. For six or seven years, Guðnadóttir recorded short melodic ideas on her phone in fleeting moments, storing them as fragments of her internal soundtrack. These candid sketches, the “constant stream of music” she describes flowing through her mind, became seeds for a monthlong period of focused transformation, where diary entry melodies unfurled into nine fully realized compositions.​

Drawing on a close-knit circle of collaborators and friends—including violist Eyvind Kang, cellists Liam Byrne and Clare O’Connell, and vocalists Jessika Kenney and Elsa Torp - Guðnadóttir constructs arrangements that balance luminous strings, restrained choir, and delicate electronics. Francesco Donadello’s touch as engineer and mixer lends an intimate, unforced presence to the final recordings. Whether recasting her own voice in spectral, layered chorus or letting a single cello line drift through silence, Guðnadóttir reveals an attentive, inward-facing music - a soundtrack for both reverie and creative renewal.

Each piece carries its own identity: “Stimm” opens with icy partials and unexpected intervals, “Erindi” aches with understated melancholy, “Make Space” shimmers with gently percolated chorale, while “Fólk fær andlit (2025)” places a quietly euphoric cap on a dreamlike journey from solitude to emergence. These are works that evade grand climaxes, instead searching for meaning in slow change, the tactile resonance of bow on string, and the breath between voices. The result is music at once deeply personal and keenly communal, built on the bonds of friendship and the economies of attention developed over years of shared listening and performance.​

The album’s booklet features an extended dialogue with filmmaker Todd Field and artwork by Gisèle Vienne, encapsulating a creative world where disciplines blur and each work sparks new forms of connection. In Guðnadóttir’s words, “Composing Where to From felt like a creative dialogue with the people who will listen to this music in the future. That is all you can hope for by releasing anything into the world—that creating something might spark something else to be created. More ‘wheres’ and ‘froms’”.