I heard about the Westfjords Residency on a facebook page. I had been looking for a place from which to form a new sound project, and thought that this residency could be just it.
You could say that my working method is pretty similar to a photographer’s. While a photographer takes visual snapshots, I record audio snapshots. I use a field recorder to capture a certain feeling, an atmosphere or a vibe. For me, a born and bread city kid, it was also a great opportunity to research a different society in my own country. My grandfather was born not far from Þingeyri, and it was an exiting thought to go back to his childhood place and get to know my roots.
As always, my project did not turn out the way I planned it. In Þingeyri lives an instrument maker named Jón, whom Wouter and Janne got me in touch with. Jón is not an ordinary instrument maker. You could call him old fashioned, but he makes old traditional instruments, called Langspil, that were used by Icelanders 1000 years ago, but have not been popular in the modern era. Going to Jón and seeing the instruments he was making, I asked him if I could play and record some of the unique sounds they produced. Jón was really helpful, not only in lending me his instruments, but also in allowing me to use the grand piano in the towns YMCA.
The mix of field recordings, the sounds of Langspil, and an occasional piano melody found there way into these songs that are presented here. It was a great time experimenting with sound in an old fishing village, meeting absolutely wonderful and inspiring artists, and, maybe the most important thing, discovering a little bit more about myself.