Iceland review - 2012, Qupperneq 20

18 ICELAND REVIEW
SOUNDS OF INSPIRATION
Born in 1977, Anna Þorvaldsdóttir has established herself as one of
Iceland’s most prominent young composers.
The year has certainly been good for the artist. Anna
received the 2012 Nordic Council Music Prize,
adding the honor to this year’s Icelandic Music
Awards for Composer of the Year and Classical/
Contemporary Album of the Year for her debut Rhízõma, listed
as one of the best classical albums of last year by TimeOut New
York. Iceland Review caught up with her just prior to her move
to Melbourne, Australia, where she will be based for the next
12 months.
Iceland Review: You recently became the fifth Icelander to receive
the Nordic Council Music Prize—for your work Dreaming. What
does the award mean to you?
Anna Þorvaldsdóttir: It’s obviously such a big honor and almost
kind of surreal still. I guess it means that your name goes fur-
ther and I hope that the piece will be performed in more places.
Otherwise we’ll just have to see. It’s first and foremost the honor.
IR: International audiences are becoming increasingly familiar with
Icelandic rock musicians. Is there a similar trend with classical/con-
temporary music? Where is Icelandic composition heading?
AÞ: This is kind of a big question because within contemporary
music, written music, we have such diversity. Visibility of contem-
porary Icelandic music is increasing and that’s good. It’s hard to
predict exactly where it is going but I think there is a lot of energy
and people are working a lot. I think it is stretching towards dif-
ferent places partly because of all the music festivals we have here.
Currently the music seems to be in a stirring pot and it will be
interesting to see what comes out of that pot, but hopefully people
will continue to seek inspiration from different musical styles.
IR: Many Icelandic musicians refer to nature, mythology, and cultural
heritage as a source of inspiration. What are your inspirations?
AÞ: I understand that for some people it becomes almost like a
cliché when nature is brought up. I am very inspired by nature in
my music. What interests me in the approach to thinking about
nature and music is to let nature inspire me with regards to propor-
tions and movement and allowing all these natural forces to inspire
me on a personal level. Some people approach it from a more
technical level and calculate measurements and then put that into
the music. But that’s not how I approach the inspiration of nature
in my music.
By Zoë robert Photo By PÁll stefÁnsson
I think it’s nice to talk about music and nature and I think it’s very
intriguing to hear how artists are inspired because it’s so differ-
ent for each and every one. For me, it is on this proportional and
movement level. Nature is the ultimate design and you can draw
so much from it and find a way to work it into the music. I can,
for example, stand with my feet in the sand at the shoreline and
watch how the ocean draws in and draws back. I allow myself to
listen to that image and then write that into the music if I need
that movement in the music. I find a way to naturally produce that
movement. So, that’s my take and nature is my biggest inspiration,
for sure.
IR: You’ve spent a lot of time abroad, in California, in recent years.
How has your time abroad influenced your approach to Icelandic music
tradition and your work in general?
AÞ: It’s so nourishing to spend time in other places. Both meeting
other people and experiencing different environments and cultures
and I think it helps you to both see more clearly what you have
back home, which is a good thing, and also in broadening your
view to places you couldn’t have imagined. I spent five and a half
years in California studying and doing my PhD and that obviously
allowed me to also meet so many brilliant people. It was an invalu-
able experience.
IR: Tell us about the choice of name for your debut album Rhízõma.
AÞ: I wanted it to have connections with the way I think about
music and also to connect the pieces. The way I often think about
the progression in music is where you have one idea and it blooms
into another and then into another. Rhízõma is from Greek and it’s
the same word as rhizome in English which means sprouting roots.
I found this to be a good title for the album.
IR: You recently performed at the Reykjavík Arts Festival and had
your work remixed by L.A.-based experimental DJ Mike Gao. Tell
us about that experience.
AÞ: I performed electronic pieces that I constructed from my
orchestra pieces and then I brought in Mike Gao, who’s a hip hop
DJ from L.A., so he’s working with very different material than
what I am working with. I was curious to see what he would do
with the material of an orchestra piece and asked him to make
remixes out of that. I was very happy with that collaboration.