Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.08.2015, Page 30

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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