Reykjavík Grapevine - jun 2021, Qupperneq 19

Man In The A!e Of Immortality
Viktor Orri Árnason composes a future with eternal life
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photo: John Pearson
Album
‘Eilífur’ by Viktor Orri Árnason will be
released on June 18th, 2021
The Epic of Gilgamesh, written
around 2100 BCE and one of the ear-
liest examples of human literature,
tells the tale of a thwarted search
for immortality. In it, the raucous
King Gilgamesh travels to the end
of the world in order to solve the
only problem he in his kingliness
is powerless against—death. There,
he meets a brewess named Siduri,
who urges Gilgamesh to be happy
with what he has, telling the des-
perate man:
“When the gods created mankind,
Death they dispensed to mankind,
Life they kept for themselves.”
Thousands of years later, in 23 BC,
Horace pens ‘Odes’, whose 11th
poem in the first book ends with
the infamous phrase: “carpe diem,
quam minimum credula postero” or
“Seize the day, put very little trust in
tomorrow.” At the same time, Epi-
cureanism has its revival in Rome,
whose inhabitants find wisdom
and guidance in the Greek’s philos-
opher’s primal tenet of a fearless
embrace of death and celebration
of life’s simple pleasures.
Fast forward almost 2000 years
and Oscar Wilde pens ‘The Picture
of Dorian Grey’. Add another hun-
dred years and physicist Max Teg-
mark introduces the thought ex-
periment of Quantum Immortality.
Flash to 2005, when noted futurist
Ray Kurzweil, the Director of Engi-
neering at Google, gives a concrete
date for the Singularity: 2045.
Now, just 24 years before Kur-
zweil’s predictions come to pass,
neo-classical composer Viktor Orri
Árnason throws his own hat into
the ring with ‘Eilífur’—his debut
album, which continues the thou-
sands of years of exploration of
mankind’s inevitable future sans
death.
What is our purpose?
“The idea really grabbed me that it
is possible—that not too far in the
future we will have such technical
advances that we may be able to re-
generate ourselves and choose to
live as long as we want,” Viktor ex-
plains. “My thoughts then became:
What does that mean for us as hu-
man beings? What is the purpose
of life? How can we even enjoy it?”
In Viktor’s view, it was man’s
own knowledge of their mortality
that drove so much of their hap-
piness. “Today, people imagine
themselves living 60-90 years and
this gives you a timeline to engage
with life with the knowledge that
you will die,” he says. “If that is gone
suddenly, it’s going to be difficult to
stay optimistic and easier to just be
bored and depressed.”
Manipulating time
To showcase this progression, Vik-
tor’s nine-track album bases itself
around three songs, entitled “Var”,
“Er” and “Var-Er”.
“Var-Er”—the last song on the
album and finale of Viktor’s adven-
ture into the future—begins with a
smooth horn progression peppered
with spurts of twinkling trills. It’s
a bit “Rites of Spring”—albeit more
relaxed—until a droning men’s
choir appears, pulling the listen-
er into the depths of meditation.
Slow and intense on the surface, the
song is underscored at all times by
a visceral sense of restlessness, of
searching, or unease. Apparently
living forever doesn’t sound par-
ticularly upbeat.
“The goal was to create a space
where you would feel lost,” Viktor
explains. “To create a sense that you
could lose yourself in time.”
And to do this, Viktor actual-
ly did lose himself in time. When
composing each track, Viktor used
tape-based time manipulation to
warp discordant sounds together.
“[This] was very important to
me in the process of making this
music,” he continues. “These are
tools that allow me to mix together
things that were originally recorded
in different tempos or keys, to slow
them down or speed them up to get
them to play together. The whole
album is a display of a distorted re-
ality, of time being irrelevant.”
Would you do it?
But the question remains, were
these medical advances available,
would Viktor embrace them? Will
he be uploading his brain in 2045?
“I would do it, but I’d want to stay
optimistic,” he laughs. “Everyone
I’ve talked to, though, are fright-
ened by this. So yes, I would defi-
nitely do it, but it saddens me to
know that many of my friends and
family would not want to.”
As a whole though, Viktor’s al-
bum urges us to seize the day, re-
gardless of immortality.
“My question was, in the end,
what do we need to do to enjoy life?
And it became about the simple
things in life,” Viktor concludes.
“We need to learn to appreciate
the moment. Allow yourself to be a
child and look up at the sky and en-
joy how wonderful it is. Enjoy every
breath you take.”
19The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 06— 2021
Event Picks
Sigur Rós won its controver-
sial court case against the
Icelandic Tax Office in the
juridical court at the end of May. The
band members were accused of evad-
ing 151 million ISK in taxes between
2011-2014 and have been fighting off
lawsuits since 2018. It’s been a brutal
story. In fact, at one point, the tax
office even froze the band members’
assets for a total of a little under
one billion ISK. The band has always
maintained that they trusted that their
accountanting office was handling
their taxes, but it turns out that they
did not. When the missing tax reports
came to light, each member instantly
paid the amounts owed. It turned out
that was the key detail in the court
case—the boys had already paid the
fine and can’t be tried twice for the
same offense. It was therefore thrown
out of the court, as it should have. The
tax office has been criticized harshly
for how heavily they sought the court
case. Some have said as a joke that
perhaps the tax office will try to hunt
down Amnesty International next. VG
Icelandic sweetheart Árn" Fjóla Sig-
mundsdóttir—member of Gagnamag-
ni# and pregnant wife of Da#i Freyr—
was diagnosed with COVID-19 the day
after Da#i and Gagnamagni# ended
up snatching the fourth place at the
2021 Eurovision Song Contest. Da!i
& co. were the only group that could
not perform onstage at the finals, as
another member of the band tested
positive for the virus only days before.
All in all, three members of the band
ended up contracting the coronavirus
at the hotel they stayed at, and it’s sus-
pected that this was due to the Polish
group—who also tested positive—that
was staying at the same hotel. Luckily,
everyone in Iceland’s Eurovision del-
egation had already been vaccinated,
so no one got seriously ill. VG
Teen band Ólafur Kram took first prize
at Músíktilraunir 2021. The infamous
competition has catapulted many
huge Icelandic bands into the spotlight
(and even world fame) including Of
Monsters & Man, Vök, Agent Fresco
and Mammút. If you want to know why
we’re so obsessed with our new win-
ners, Ólafur Kram, then read this article
backwards. hsams kluH. VG
MUSIC
NEWS
KARÍTAS Album Release Show
June 10th - 20:00 - Kex Hostel - Free!
When I think KARÍTAS, I think of
cryin" really beautifully over a lost
love until my mascara has forever
ruined my pillow. Seriously—the "irl
knows how to perfect a slow burn.
Luckily, I now have an excuse to cry
in public. Thx for the concert, K. HJC

Úlfú#
June 5th - 20:00 - Gaukurinn - Free!
Fed up with happy summer vibes and
feeling up for an intense Saturday
night? Úlfú!, an extreme metal band
from Reykjavík, is ready to serve.
With their dark and deathly sound,
they are a guarantee for a haunting
night. HJC
Photo by Eva Alexandra
photography.
MSEA x Hold!ervlar
June 10th - 20:30 - Mengi - 2,000 ISK
Name a better duo. First
up? Holdgervlar, the
winner of the ‘One To
Watch’ award at the 2021
Grapevine Music Awards.
The cyber beings, or as
they call themselves,
“xenobots, ready made
organisms, with human
roots,” play the kind of
music they’d play in the
seediest goth nights in
the far reaches of the
galaxy. Seriously—it’s
80s Berlin sci-fi mixed
with Giallo all wrapped
up in a mannequin like
mask. The aliens are
joined by the earthling
MSEA, another Grapevine
favourite, who is known
for her delicate, gentle
vocals and striking,
dissonant tones. The
end result will be an
ethereal, everlasting
experience that’ll be as
good as a vaccine. HJC
Our events and music listin"s will resume the moment the entire Grapevine staff is vaccinated.
Music
gpv.is/music
Share this + Archives"Allow yourself to be a child and look up to the sky and enjoy how wonderful it is."
Who wants to live forever? Viktor Orri