Reykjavík Grapevine - júl. 2021, Blaðsíða 24

The Soulful Gardener
EinarIndra experiments with earthly sounds
Words: Alina Maurer Photos: Art Bicnick
Album
Stream EinarIndra’s new album
‘Disintegrate’ on Spotify, Soundcloud
and all other streaming platforms.
EinarIndra is one who likes to take
his time, fearlessly modifying his
electronic creations until he is en-
tirely satisfied. After three previ-
ous studio- albums, Einar’s first
full-length offering, ‘Disintegrate,’
has emerged and is ready to carry
the listener away into a mystic,
melancholic and soulful world of
experimental electronic music, un-
derlined by melodious vocals.
A perfectionist at heart
‘Disintegrate’ is a vast composi-
tion of Einar’s personal field-re-
cordings, deep lyrics and dreamy
electronic beats fused with instru-
mental piano sounds. The name of
the album makes complete sense,
as everything was initially broken
down before Einar merged the
loose pieces back together.
Most of Einar’s music is inter-
twined and inspired by his person-
al experiences. He took a
brief pause from music in
2018, after the birth of his
youngest daughter, and
travelled through Europe,
which heavily influenced
the start of his album.
“We went to Tener-
ife, Portugal and spent a
month in Lisbon. My mix-
ing and mastering engi-
neer that I've been work-
ing with, called me up and
said that we should do
something. He inspired
me to go for it,” Einar re-
members and adds, “I was
actually thinking about
naming the record 'While
you were sleeping', be-
cause all the songs came [together]
when my daughter was sleeping.”
After three years of creating,
he finally finished the album this
year. “Some tracks I wasn't com-
fortable with and changed them
30 times over the course of two
years,” Einar sighs. The constant
modifications and development of
the tracks explain the final name
of the album, “I was changing up a
lot of my process, so the title of the
album came out of that—like old
patterns being disintegrated.”
Using nature's tunes
Einar creates his own sounds, un-
derlining his music in a peculiar
and enchanting way. “With a lap-
top, you have the whole world of
sound [at] your fingertips. This re-
cord is mainly based on the sounds
I have created,” he explains, tak-
ing a sip of his steaming coffee.
“Sometimes I want a sound and it
takes me three days to achieve it. I
think the more you put into it, the
more precious it becomes to you,
even if it doesn’t sound better to
someone else.”
On the track “Watching things
grow,” pebbles can be heard
washing up on the shore of his
home peninsula Tjörnes, close to
Húsavík, lending it some kind of
mystic vibe. “It's
one of my fa-
vourite places.
The recording
is from a small harbour, down at
the sea. I recorded it on a beauti-
ful summer day, you could hear the
stones coming up on the shore. I
think that one is my favourite field
recording,” Einar recalls.
A man who can do it all
EinarIndra does it all—singer,
songwriter and field-recorder. His
next project, after the release of
‘Disintegrate’ in late May, is cre-
ating a music video for the song
“Watching things grow.”
As a hobby-gardener himself,
Einar invisions his own inspira-
tions for the track to be compiled in
a music video. “I planted soybeans
in my greenhouse and I have a
camera on them. It has been going
for more than a week, like a time
lapse. I'm thinking of combining
that with videos of my daughter
into a music video,” he says and
smiles. It’s clear that out of the
ten tracks on the album“Watching
things grow” is a special one to
Einar. “I love gardening and watch-
ing things grow. It was a [fitting]
title, both that and watching my
daughter grow up. [It’s] this aspect
of sitting by and watching some-
thing grow instead of interfering
with it,” he explains carefully.
We might not all have the pa-
tience to watch soybeans grow, but
EinarIndra’s beats inspire a sense
of presence, infecting us with his
ability to slow down.
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24The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07— 2021
He's moving btw, his face doesn't just look like that
Music
“I think the
more you
put into it,
the more
precious it
becomes to
you, even if
it doesn't
sound better
to someone
else.”
EinarIndra and a dear friend