Hi there! I’ve been so bad at updating my website lately, I’m sorry. But I just stopped by to announce these cool news:
Nocturne for electric sounds, alto-flute and soprano voice is online!
The piece by Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson was premiered at ErkiTíð, an Icelandic computer- and electronic music festival, last November. Hjálmar composed this piece in the 70’s, made all the electric sounds on a huge computer in Utrecht (at the Institute for Sonlogy), but it was never performed - probably because technically it was very demanding! Finally, Kjartan, the artistic director of ErkiTíð, pushed Hjálmar to finish the music for his festival. So Hjálmar brought Áshildur Haraldsdóttir, flautist, and me in, and finally this amazing piece was premiered in Hafnarhús, Reykjavík Art Museum on the 27th of November.
Recently ErkiTíð won the Icelandic Music Award as Musical Event of the Year, and around that time Nocturne made it’s way to the streaming services. It’s available on Tidal, Spotify and YouTube, and probably some other places. This is the live recording from the concert. I loved performing this, there was a lot of freedom and playfulness, but I’ve since listened a few times and I really enjoy it immensely, especially played very loud in a good sound system. Enjoy!
(p.s. Fun fact: In the beginning, mixed with the electronics is a recording of my father playing the flute, recorded in 1977. See if you can recognize it in this whole soundworld!)