Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.08.2015, Blaðsíða 30

Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.08.2015, Blaðsíða 30
Open 11:30-22:00 saegreif inn. is Geirsgata 8 • 101 Reykjavík • Tel. 553 1500 • seabaron8@gmail.com An absolute must-try! Saegreifinn restaurant (Sea Baron) is like none other in Iceland; a world famous lobster soup and a diverse fish selection. Hekla created an evocative, other- worldly atmosphere that seemed to creep between the audience members like curious tendrils, wrapping the lis- teners in sound. After half an hour that seemed to pass in an instant, she was gone as suddenly as she arrived. But the feeling of her music seemed to linger on in the mind, like a memory of being “somewhere else,” far from the familiarity of everyday life. Several months later, I sit down for coffee with the mild-mannered Hekla, and wonder why I haven’t seen any shows advertised since. “I just don’t play much!” she smiles. “I’ve never gone out looking for gigs, but I made a resolution that when people ask me to play, I will say yes. It’s an important part of doing music, I think.” Retro-futurist drones Hekla first started experimenting with sound eight years ago, culminating in a six-track EP that was self-released last summer. “I put some songs up on Bandcamp,” she explains, “without re- ally telling anyone about it. But people found out about it anyway, and it en- couraged me to make more music. It was all an accident, really.” Hekla’s main inspiration comes from playing the theremin, an antique odd- ity of an instrument invented by Rus- sian innovator Léon Theremin in 1920. Nine years later, the theremin became the first electronic instrument ever to be mass-produced. It was seen as a futuristic marvel at the time, due to an unorthodox playing technique that in- volves the musician generating sound by moving their hands in the air around two antennae. This magical-seeming process, combined with its intrigu- ing sound, still fascinates compos- ers and avant-garde musicians in the present day. “I’m self-taught basically,” says Hekla. “I would just practice by myself. You play the theremin without touching it, using one hand to control the volume and the other to control the pitch. You have to learn to balance the two. My writing process is really about discov- ery and improvisation—I play and play for a long time and record it, and patch the sounds together. It’s more about sound than composition, maybe." Hekla adapts and expands on the sound of the theremin, putting it through effects and bending it into dif- ferent shapes. At times, her theremin playing can sound like an operatic voice, a deep, bassy thrum, or an atonal violin, echoing from far away. “I like my music to be repetitive and minimal, not really with a fixed beat or anything,” she explains. “Finding new sounds and working with them, seeing where the sounds takes you, without ever really having a plan, and discover- ing things accidentally... something that you weren’t expecting can happen, and it can make the whole thing.” Triple-pronged attack This enjoyment of experimentation has taken Hekla’s music in different directions. She’s currently working on three distinct projects inside the whole. “Firstly, I’m working a solo album of my new songs,” she says. “Then there’s an album of traditional folk songs from Catalonia. Then there’s another al- bum on the way, made of more noisy and experimental stuff. I don’t want to mix it all together, but I still want to do all of these different things.” The new mate- rial will be much ap- preciated by Hekla’s fans, who include a growing number of Iceland’s alternative music cognoscenti. “The solo album will be called ‘Trasto’,” she says, “which is Spanish for ‘junk.’ But it also has a bit of a double mean- ing. Like, a person can also be a trasto. I grew up in Spain, and I’m not that confi- dent in my Icelandic—that’s why my lyr- ics are either in Spanish or English.” The sound will build on the haunt- ing noise of her first EP. “I still mostly use theremin, and theramini,” she says, “which is a new type of theremin with a more synthy sound. Then this time I use some synths, my voice, and some beats from a drum machine. I used to make rhythms from the theremin’s micro- sounds, but it took a very long time, so now I’m using the drum machine. But it’s still very minimalistic—very slow and atmospheric. It’s nice to layer and layer the music, pitch it up or down, or ad- just the speed, and transform the sound into something else.” Surf-punk and vulnerability For all of Hekla’s shyness, there’s a bravery in what she does, both cre- atively and on a personal level. “The new album is me stepping out of my comfort zone,” she says. “On the EP, there was only one song with lyrics. The new album has only one instrumental. But it’s more just about blending vocals in—I like foggy, atmospheric sounds.” I wonder where Hekla sees herself— whether she feels connected to a wider scene of avant-garde, drone or experi- mental music. “Actually I don’t listen to much of that,” she smiles. “I just listen to pop and Linkin Park, like when I was thirteen! I don’t know where my music fits into all that. Maybe I should open for the Backstreet Boys or something.” When it comes to the harrowing process of stepping onto the stage, Hekla learned a lot as a member of the surf-punk band Bárujárn, includ- ing how to maintain her personal (and theremin) space during a stage in- vasion. “I used to get really drunk be- fore Bárujárn concerts,” she laughs. “But I don’t get so nervous now. Playing alone can make you feel more vulner- able, but then, there’s no frontman in this kind of music. I don’t have to say: 'Hey, how are y’all doing?' Instead, there’s some lights, and a lot of fog, and I’m just back there, like a shadow in the dark.” Listen to Hekla’s music at hekla.band- camp.com and find out more at hekla- heklahekla.com. Earlier in 2015, at the Sónar Reykjavík festival, a solo mu- sician known simply as Hekla walked out into the dimly lit crucible of Harpa’s Kaldalón theatre. Beginning to play wordlessly in near-darkness, and using just her voice, a couple of effects pedals and a theremin, she proceeded to enchant the rapt crowd with a series of eerie, textural compositions. Words John Rogers Photo Sigga Ella A Shadow In The Dark We explored the evocative theremin sound of Hekla Magnúsdóttir “I don’t listen to much drone music. I just listen to pop and Linkin Park, like when I was thirteen! I don’t know where my music fits into all that. Maybe I should open for the Back- street Boys or something.” 30 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 12 — 2015MUSIC
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