Iceland review - 2019, Qupperneq 84

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Iceland Review
Earlier this year, members of the band Hjaltalín
surprised their fans by releasing their first single in five
years. Even though the band’s members are all active
in other projects, the innovative group seemed to be
in hibernation for years, with many assuming that we’d
seen the last of them. Turns out, Hjaltalín hadn’t quit. It
hadn’t even been hibernating. Life just got in the way.
Don’t call it a comeback
I meet up with a couple of members of Hjaltalín in
a small but cosy apartment in the old city centre.
The environment is just like Hjaltalín, timeless
yet modern. Sigríður Thorlacius and Hjörtur Ingvi
Jóhannsson are still basking in the afterglow of a
successful weekend of concerts at Harpa concert
hall, billed as their biggest ever. “We feel pretty
good these days,” Hjörtur tells me.
According to Sigríður, the concert felt like the
band breaking the cocoon of their creative hiberna-
tion. “I think it was healthy for us to do something
together. Things have been, not at a standstill, but if
we’ve been working, it’s been on our own, privately.
We decided at the beginning of the year to release a
new song, just to get a little reaction, because when
you get that reaction, it makes the work flow better.
Then it’s like ‘OK, we’re doing something.’”
Hjörtur is as excited as Sigríður about the
recent concerts. “It’s like when you’ve spent a long
time nurturing your garden and you’re starting to
see some potatoes and swedes peeking out of the
ground.” Even though Hjaltalín hasn’t been releas-
ing new music or playing concerts regularly, they’ve
been hard at work on an album, to be released later
this year. Hjörtur tells me it’s been a long process.
“We’ve been in this creative phase for a while now,
about 3-5 years, recording and working on the new
album. When it comes out, that’s harvest season.”
A new kind of pop
Hjaltalín has been one of the country’s most pop-
ular groups since their first single Goodbye July
(Margt að ugga) became a surprise hit in 2007,
followed by their debut album, Sleepdrunk Seasons.
All former schoolmates, the band has been working
together in its current form for more than a decade.
Every member of the group is a trained musician,
and their pallette of instruments is much broader
than you’d usually hear in a pop band. Hjörtur
explains that their unique sound can be attributed
to trained musicians bringing different skills and
influences together to create something new. He
tells me, “Högni entered the band as he started