Reykjavík Grapevine - júl. 2020, Blaðsíða 24

Film buffs—basically any-
one with good taste—will
be familiar with Icelandic
composer Atli Örvarsson.
Atli has spent the last 15 years living the
LA dream, but recently he returned home
to the icy climes of Akureyri. The result?
His first solo album, ‘You Are Here’.
Inspired by the majesty of Eyjafjör!ur,
Atli blessed our ears with 36 minutes of
swelling piano melodies interwoven with
effortlessly graceful cello. What’s more,
the album’s centrepiece, “Breathing” is
accompanied by a sublime music video.
Shot by Blair Alexander in the empty Har-
pa concert hall back when Iceland was
at the peak of its COVID-19 outbreak, the
video perfectly captures the record’s
bittersweet beauty. Our expectations
for Atli’s album were sky-high, and he’s
exceeded them.

Björk’s back, baby! That’s right,
everyone’s go-to Icelandic pop culture
reference and unofficial queen of kooky
headpieces will be gracing the
floorboards of Harpa with four weekend
performances this summer in collabora-
tion with Iceland Airwaves. Björk will be
playing unplugged, accompanied by
some of Iceland’s greatest classical
ensembles. Unfortunately, tickets for the
live performance are now sold-out—ap-
parently Björk’s kind of a big deal, who
knew? But fear not if you missed out on a
chance at seeing the real-deal, the event
will be live-streamed. Maybe they'll add
another date though...
Just when you thought Myrkfælni
couldn’t get cooler, the underground
Icelandic music mag launched its own
record label. And their first band? None
other than Holdgervlar—Reykjavik’s
best-dressed post-goth darkwave duo.
Music lovers can expect three releases
before the end of 2020. “Excited” just
doesn’t capture our true feelings. The
label also announced the fourth
iteration of their beloved Myrkfælni
compilations. So far, it’ll feature works
by MSEA, AfterpartyAngel, Ægir, Captain
Syrup, GRÓA, Korter í flog, SPÜNK, RYBA
and more. PA
MUSIC
NEWS
Content In The
Darkness
Teen trio Dymbrá’s mystical new album
Words: Nico Borbely Photo: Art Bicnick
Album
Streaming on all platforms.
The Dymbrá girls seem right at home
posing on the grassy field and be-
tween the trees beside Ásmundar-
salur, smartly clad in coordinating
outfits of sleek cobalt fabric of the
sort that they often make when per-
forming or appearing as a group.
Made up of Menntaskólinn vi! Ham-
rahlí! schoolmates Eir Ólafsdóttir
on cello, Nína Sólveig Andersen on
violin, and Eyrún Úa "orbjörnsdót-
tir on flute, the teen trio recently
released an eponymous debut album
consisting of elegant, ethereal in-
strumentals with occasional haunt-
ingly beautiful Icelandic vocals. “We
wanted to create a feeling and an
atmosphere based on what we feel
inside more so than specific words
or messages of ours,” Nína explains.
The kind of darkness
that hugs you
Nína, Eyrún and Eir characterize
their musical inspirations and in-
fluences as mainly sentimental and
intuitive in nature. “A lot of the mu-
sic is inspired by feelings we felt
at times of great change,” Eyrún
explains. “We wrote
[it] when we were
finishing grunnskóli
and Eir was moving
to Spain for a year.”
Eir comes up with
the apt characterisa-
tion of “experimen-
tal modern classic,
tranquil, mystical, a
bit dark” to describe
D y m b r á’s m u s i c
to the uninitiated.
“But not depressing
darkness,” she clar-
ifies with a chuck-
le; “content darkness, the kind
of dark ness that hugs you.”
“I would also say that it high-
lights the difference between
darkness and light,” Nína adds.
“W hen you’re a teenager,
everything seems so big and im-
portant, but even just a few months
later you laugh at yourself for hav-
ing been so dramatic,” adds Eir, in
a gentle Irish brogue, which she ex-
plains she acquired from an Irish
neighbor during her exchange in
Spain. “Which is why we chose not
to have the vocals as the main part
of the song,” Eyrún continues. Eir
nods. “People can relate to the feel-
ing without necessarily needing to
put words to what was going on in
our heads,” she posits in agreement.
The album’s second song “Dul-
brá” is a comprehensive example of
this. Beginning with flourishes of
piano, it transitions into a section
of harmonious vocals articulated
almost in a gentle whisper. After
a moment of slight musical clash,
the piano combines with rich cel-
lo and finishes on an elegant vio-
lin high note. Airy and multilay-
ered, the song is very much true
to Dymbrá’s other-worldly sound.
From Músíktilraunir to
the big time
Though Dymbrá’s release concert at
the National Gallery on June 20th was
certainly a big and exciting event,
the girls have quickly become expe-
rienced performers. They made it to
the finals of the Icelandic Music Ex-
periments (Músíktilraunir) contest
and they were originally set to partic-
ipate in this year’s competition, but
it was delayed due to the pandemic.
“We’re writing new songs, we
want to move fur-
ther and try some-
thing a bit differ-
ent,” comments
Nína in regards
to their upcoming
goals and plans.
“All the songs on
our debut album
were written two
years ago; as we’ve
gotten better at
playing our re-
spective instru-
ments and our
voices have ma-
tured a bit, the new ones are bound
to be a bit different,” Eyrún and Eir
chime in together. A goal of theirs
would be to have their music featured
in film soundtracks in the future.
“We don’t need to do something
new just for the sake of developing
a sound that people will recognize
as ours,” Eyrún and Eir conclude.
“We just try new things that we
like so we can change things up
while still staying true to our-
selves and our musical roots.”
“When you’re a
teenager, every-
thing seems so
big and important,
but even just a few
months later you
laugh at yourself
for having been so
dramatic.”
Dymbrá are o$en described as "smooth criminals"
Music
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