Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.10.2019, Qupperneq 30

30The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 19— 2019Music
Concert
Check out ‘Poco Apollo’ on Spotify.
It will be released on vinyl in the
coming weeks.
Eldjárn—the Icelandic word for
“fireiron”—suggests a sort of
burning rage, but Halldór Eld-
járn evokes anything but. Taking
a seat at the Grapevine office, the
c omp ut er s c ien-
tist-cum-musician,
calm and centered,
carefully observes
his surroundings.
Halldór just dropped
his solo album ‘Poco
Apollo’ in mid-Oc-
t ob er, ga r ner i n g
instantaneous at-
tention. The effort
is a powerful mani-
festation of his calm
energy and a captivating listen.
One small step for
man...
‘Poco Apollo’ started as a web app,
which used algorithms to gener-
ate musical soundscapes based on
the approximately 15,000 images
in NASA’s photo archive from the
Apollo space mission.
“I basically went through the
photo library and picked my fa-
vourite parts,” Halldór says with
subtle excitement. “Some of the
generated pieces are really spot
on and I got goosebumps listening
to them, so I decided to turn them
into a richer orchestration, with
strings and percussion.”
Strange paths
The outcome is a highly inventive
mix of low-key am-
bient and neo-clas-
sical music. “I try to
go on strange paths,”
Hal ldór explains,
smiling. “The string
orchestra on the
recording is what
I call a deep string
quartet. It’s a term
that has never been
used before. I chose
to have two violas, a
cello, and a contrabass, so the in-
struments are all deeper and de-
liver a slightly darker sound than a
conventional string quartet.”
“When you’re an electronic
artist, you tend to be a little bit
introverted,” he admits. “I’m not
classically schooled in composi-
tion, so writing the songs for the
instruments can be a bit of a head-
ache; I’m not always aware of what
is possible. I just write what I want
and then negotiate later with the
musicians what they can actually
play. They were very supportive” he
concludes.
Time and focus
Performing on stage, Halldór radi-
ates the same meditative energy of
his music during the interview. “I
did not make this music with med-
itation in mind, but it’s great if my
music can be used in that way,” he
explains. The idea seems to reso-
nate with him.
“Meditation is not only the
hype of drinking some raw coco-
nut drink and lighting a candle,
it’s focusing on a single thing. Our
attention is everywhere nowadays
and our most precious resources
are time and focus.”
Halldór doesn’t just talk the
talk. He practices mindfulness
exercises frequently—something
that has certainly informed his
musical output. “I try to remind
myself regularly about the ‘now.’
And the songs are maybe created
in that state. That state where you
can just leave time for a little bit
and get into a flow where the music
just comes.”
And he was alright
Halldór is most well-known for his
work with iconic Icelandic elec-
tro-pop act SYKUR—a band that
is sonically about as far away from
his solo work as you can get. “It was
good to get my own space to work
on my ideas, my concept,” Halldór
says, contemplating the creation of
‘Poco Apollo.’ SYKUR, meanwhile,
is about to drop—or perhaps has
already dropped, depending on
when you are reading this—their
long-awaited third album.
The vacuum of space is said
to be silent—no sound waves can
travel in the ether—but Halldór’s
work finds tones in the never-end-
ing darkness. Calibrate your tele-
scope, he’s one to watch.

Findin! Still-
ness In This
Hectic World
The !eneratin! process of Halldór Eldjárn
Words: Lea Müller Photo: Matthew Eisman
Halldór Eldjárn, his head in the stars
“Meditation is
not only the
hype of drink-
ing some raw
coconut drink
and lighting a
candle.”