Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2019, Qupperneq 24

“Whether you know it or not, you’ve
probably heard the music of Sveinbjörn
Thorarensen. A producer, solo artist,
master collaborator, multi-instrumen-
tal live performer, remixer, composer
for da nce perfor-
mances, and more,
he’s been involved in
a dizzying variety of
projects for over a de-
cade. You might have
seen him wielding a
keytar in FM Belfast,
adding propulsive
electronic flourishes to Retro Stefson,
powering along Berndsen’s synth-fu-
elled pop mayhem; or, indeed, lashing
around his distinctive plaited pigtails
as he unleashes his curious, restless,
era-hopping electronica as Hermiger-
vill.
In person, as onstage, Sveinbjörn is
a one-off. Within moments of meeting,
he’s pouring forth his trademark joke
ideas. Nintendo, he says, should make
a “Mario Pint” drinking game, in which
the player has to drink
against Mario to catch
up with the already-
trashed Luigi. Parap-
pa The Rapper from
the cult 90s rap-along
video game should re-
turn as “Parappa the
Rabbi,” spitting sage
advice instead of cartoon rhymes.
“Everything I do is kind of a joke,”
says Sveinbjörn, considering the inher-
ent mischief of his work. He makes eye
contact, suddenly mock-stern. “But it’s
also not a joke.”
Quest for obscurity
This kind of playful rearrangement is
also a trademark of Hermigervill’s mu-
sical output. Long before he had formed
his current identity, his thought pro-
cesses and methods were already form-
ing. “My father had a MIDI keyboard
in the ’90s,” he remembers. “You had
all these sounds—screaming sounds,
helicopter sounds. He had a computer
that you could sequence with. And I
was fascinated.”
His first two albums—self-released
in the early noughties—were tapes-
tries of obscure samples gleaned from
the dusty annals of Icelandic pop his-
tory. “Those early records were very
inspired by DJ Shadow and RJD2,” says
Sveinbjörn. “I’d try and find the most
obscure samples possible—it’s wasn’t
like using a Madonna song. I used a
sampler, a Technics turntable, and a lot
of records. I’d bounce samples, record
into a tape machine and overdub it, and
record that into the computer. It’s quite
Stone Age compared to what kids have
today, but almost there, technically.”
Chasing unicorns
To deepen his catalogue of sounds,
Sveinbjörn went to Geisladiskabúð Val-
da—an Aladdin’s cave of assorted sec-
ond-hand CDs, computer games, and
vinyl—to pick up old Icelandic records
for 100 króna apiece. “They’re price-
less now, but absolutely nobody wanted
these records in 2002,” he laughs. “You
couldn’t really go on the internet for
samples yet, and I was always swayed
against using samples that were ac-
Culture
The Future Sound
Of Iceland
Hermigervill’s new album explores the contemporary dystopia

Albums
‘II’ and ‘The Future
Sound of Iceland’
are out now
on Spotify and
elsewhere. Hear
Hermigervill’s
early releases
at hermigervill.
bandcamp.com
Hermigervill, preparing to beam back to wherever he came from
24The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12— 2019
Words:
John Rogers
Photos:
Art Bicnick
Joy, Sustainability
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“I chase whatever
unicorn I find
interesting, and it
always turns out
to be a problem.”