Iceland review - 2019, Síða 85

83
Iceland Review
studying composition at the Iceland University of
the Arts. He was composing for classical instru-
ments, and the group contained classically trained
musicians. Our early sound was heavily influenced
by that, it’s been described as chamber pop.”
The album didn’t sound like anything else at
the time. It was a huge hit, getting nominated for
Album of the Year at the Iceland Music Awards.
Never content to rest on their laurels, for their
next album, the group shifted their sound. “We
moved on to symphonic pop. We went all the way
with grand orchestral arrangements, with many
poppy elements, 60s and 70s references,” Hjörtur
explains.
Although the band worked together on their
first two albums, Högni was the main composer.
While working on their third studio album, Enter 4,
however, Högni experienced manic episodes and
bouts of depression, effects of bipolar disorder.
As Sigríður puts it, “At that point, things start
happening by accident, really. Because he wasn’t
entirely present in the final stages as we were
finishing the album. Well, he was present, but…”
Hjörtur finishes her sentence, “He was in another
dimension, literally. The fourth dimension.”
A trying time for Högni and everyone who
worked with him, his mental health was neverthe-
less also a source of creative excellence, and ended
up inspiring more creative co-operation than
before. Sigríður talks about that time with mixed
emotions. “Other members of the band had to step
in and be a bigger part of the creation, when it came
to arrangements and final versions of the tracks.
But Högni did all this incredible spiritual work on
himself and his journey brought so many amazing
ideas into the music. All the things that came from
that dimension were incredibly exciting and inter-
esting. That tied it all together. It was a blessing
and a curse, really, both for him and for us.”
Enter 4 was released to critical and popular
acclaim, but Högni’s condition and the taxing
creative process had taken its toll on the band. “We
never actually quit, in fact we started working on
a new album in 2014, but we took a break,” Hjörtur
explained. Having completed Enter 4 and played
together incessantly all over the world led to a
natural lull in the band’s activity. “It was healthy,
really. After Enter 4, we didn’t want to release a new
version of the same thing, or something that was
inferior. Then life happened and we got busy doing
other things. But we still got together and worked
on the upcoming album regularly.” As a conse-
"WE’RE EMBRACING THE BEAUTIFUL SIDE
OF GROWING OLDER. YOUR ATTITUDE
CHANGES, YOU BECOME MORE HUMBLE
AND MORE GRATEFUL."