Article in Ensemble

I recently answered some questions about new music in Iceland for the german music magazine ENSEMBLE – Magazin fur Kammermusik. I don´t think I can legally upload the article but the magazine can be purchased here

Tectonics Festival

This coming Saturday, March 3rd, my piece Horpma III will be premiered in a concert with music also by Charles Ross and Áki Ásgeirsson. 27 people are performing my piece on various plucked instruments. The piece is kind of an independent sequel to the pieces on my CD (Horpma). This is the first time this music will be heard in a concert. This festival is great, 3 days from March 1st-3rd  loads of interesting stuff in the Harpa Concert Hall. The whole thing is hosted by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and curated by Ilan Volkov. Did not believe this would happen first time I heard about the idea for this festival.

 

Tectonics Festival

 

A few new recordings

Four concert recordings from over the course of last year. First there is a recording from January 29th, Dark Music Days 2012, Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra premiers Laur.

Then there is the Icelandic Flute Choir premiering Harskjall & svellkar for 14-18 flutes. This was recorded during the festival Summer Concerts in Skálholt on the 16th of July 2011. A sort of a programmatic piece describing the flight of St. Theresa of Avila.

Then there is a live recording of my piece Mardiposa since May 2011 when there was a portrait concert of my work in the Von concert hall.

And last but not least Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir and Una Sveinbjarnardóttir premiering Vargard for violin and piano during Dark Music Days 2011.

Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra premiers Laur

 

Tomorrow on the 29th of January, the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra will premier my piece Laur. It is for 13 instruments. I am very happy about this project. This is part of the festival Myrkir Músíkdagar or Dark Music Days which is an annual contemporary music festival in Reykjavík. Hopefully I will have transcendentally unspeakably illuminating recording to share here in a bit.

 

French webradio

An excerpt from Horpma was one of the things included in a radio program hosted by New York based percussionis Shayna Dunkelmann.

You can see the playlist and listen to it here:

http://droitdecites.org/2011/12/10/shayna-dunkelman-sur-websynradio-15-22-decembre/

An Italian review

I just found out there is  a review on Horpma in the Italian All about jazz. Not that it is jazz but it can be read here if you know Italian:

 

http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=6940

 

Video summary of the Fersteinn tour

Here is a video with several moments from the Fersteinn Netherlands tour, mixed in with some classic moments from Keflavík.

 

 

 

 

Fersteinn Netherlands tour

My band Fersteinn (a quartet performing my compositions) did a short tour recently in the Netherlands. Here we have some nice pictures from The Wallgallery, which is a gallery run at the 37th floor of a Rotterdam skyscraper. This event was hosted and curated by De Player which is a space for performance art and all kinds of wonderful activities. You can see some photos on their website or here to be more precise:

http://www.deplayer.nl/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=47&catid=229

some recordings or videos might be on their way as well. Hopefully an artwork that you can play on a record player will be out soon as well . . .

5 premiers in a week (roughly speaking)

www.slatur.is/slaturtid

Last Sunday (25th of Sept) kids with home-made instruments premiered my piece Færibandið along with the audience in Salurinn, Kópavogi. Tomorrow evening (Wednesday 28th) the Swiss flautist Matthias Ziegler and The Icelandic Flute Choir will premier my piece Marfjall & hafkar, independent sequel to Harskjall & svellkar. Thursday (29th) a piece for automated instruments (4 kitchen bowls played by solanoids) will be performed in the festival Sláturtíð which I am co-organizing. The following day will see Fengjastrútur premier my Quartet number 10. Then on Tuesday next week (4th of October) One plus One (a Finnish accordion and piano duo) will premier my piece raBalilabalila in Riga, Latvia. Will hopefully share some recordings here.

oneplusone-1

An interview in Tokafi

 

An interview with me was published recently in the online music magazine Tokafi.  I talk about my album Horpma and some other ramble.

 

It can be read here:

 

http://www.tokafi.com/15questions/15-questions-gudmundur-steinn-gunnarsson/