Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.01.2017, Side 36

Music 36The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 01 — 2017
Gyða Valtysdóttir first rose to promi-
nence as one of the twin singers in
the first iteration of múm, but her
story over the past few years is very
much her own. After studying clas-
sical cello in Russia, she spent a few
years travelling the world, collabo-
rating, and slowly piecing together
‘Epicycle’—a “covers album” of some
of her favourite classical composi-
tions from throughout musical his-
tory. We asked her to tell us the story
behind her selections.
1. Vision (based on Prokofiev’s Vi-
sion Fugitives) is the track that
sparked this record, when I played
it super slow on piano many years
ago, and fell into the space be-
tween the notes. That is what I
wanted to capture... the space be-
tween.
2. Seikilos Epitaph is the oldest
surviving musical composition in
the world, found on a tombstone
in today’s Turkey. I met with Hil-
mar Jensson, and we improvised
around the melody. I took one of
these improvisations and asked a
friend to add some bagpipes to it.
He also played duduk, and it really
completed the song. I also added
some vocal harmony on it, record-
ed straight onto the laptop.
3-4. Ancient Mode. I love Harry
Partch—he’s really got his own
unique space. This was originally
written for his own invented mi-
crotonal instrument called the
“harmonic canon.” We recorded
it in (marimba player) Danny Tu-
nick’s living room in NYC; we had
never met so I brought wine and
meat. We only had couple of hours
to do the recording but half of
that went into the meal. Than we
played and Shahzad Ismaily joined
on percussion.
5. Opus 100. This piece is based
on a piano trio by Schubert. I met
with Shahzad and the drummer
Julian Sartorius. We learned the
chords of the pieces and then im-
provised on it for two hours. This
was the best version, with some
tiny bits of overdub on it.
6. God Music. Another spark for
this record, this is the absolutely
heavenly movement from George
Crumb’s “Black Angels,” which is
immense and intense. I love play-
ing it as a short little song in my
live sets. The accompaniment is
bowed crystal glasses, though
on the recording I used bowls,
sampled and then played on a key-
board.
7. Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai
by Robert Schumann. Me and
Shahzad often slept in the studios
we were working. One of them
had a huge room, and we made
a pirate ship in the middle of it,
filled it with candles and blankets.
Shahzad fell asleep and I sang this
on repeat as we sailed into the
night.
8. Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus by
Olivier Messiaen is from “Quar-
tet for the End of Time” which he
wrote while he was a prisoner of
war during WWII. This particu-
late movement, for cello and pia-
no, is a recycle of “Fête des belles
eaux,” written for six Onde-Mar-
tenot in 1937. It is so dreamy and
trippy and inspired my interpreta-
tion. Shahzad plays electric guitar
and we’ve been performing this in
pubs and bars all over the world.
9. Hildegard von Bingen was a
witch-nun, nature-scientist and
healer from the 12th century. She
had visions from an early age, but
in her 40s she was told by the al-
mighty to channel and write down
what she heard. At first she was
reluctant, but she fell seriously ill
until she started to write melodies
and poems, most of which are al-
most Sapphic odes to lady Mary. I
read her diary and felt inspired to
read over her music on the cello.
I recorded it just for fun with a
Shure mic lying on a chair, then
forgot about it. I found the record-
ings while working on the record
and it slipped in.
LISTEN &SHARE: gpv.is/tt701
TRACK BY TRACK
‘Epicycle’
by Gyða Valtýsdóttir
Words JOHN ROGERS / GYÐA VALTÝSDÓTTIR
A different sort of milennial