Browse by Artist: GUDNADOTTIR, HILDUR

Artist:	GUDNADOTTIR, HILDUR
Title:	Without Sinking
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	TO 070CD

Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir (b. 1982) is a classically-trained Icelandic cellist and composer, and this is her first full-length release for the Touch label. Best known for her collaborations with múm and guest appearances with Pan Sonic, she has a rich catalog of collaborations and varied projects behind her. Gudnadóttir began playing cello as a child, entering the Reykjavík Music Academy and then moving on to musical studies/composition and new media at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and Universitat der Kunste in Berlin. Back in Iceland, she became very active in the neu-Iceland scene as a member of Kitchen Motors, a Reykjavík-based think tank, record label and art collective, along with internationally-renowned composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. In 2004, she started playing with the band Angel (Ilpo Väisänen and Dirk Dresslehaus). Around that time, she made an album with Dirk (Mr. Schmuck's Farm), and went on to play live with Pan Sonic, later collaborating on their album Katodivaihe/Cathodephase. She released her first solo album, Mount A, under the artist name Lost In Hildurness, on the Reykjavík-based label 12 Tónar in 2006. Gudnadóttir played all the instruments on the album -- vibraphone, viola da gamba, harp and vocals, constructing a work of delicately-layered, contemplative, cello-based ruminations. She has also played frequently with field recording artist and performer BJ Nilsen; delicate duets that conjure the somber rapture of multi-tracked cello -- Gudnadóttir's live playing augmented by laptop loops. As a composer, she has written music for plays, dance performances and films, pieces for chamber orchestras, various instruments, voices and electronics. Gudnadóttir likes to explore the nature and movement of sound, and often turns her experiments into sound and visual installations. Touch presents the work of an artist who has quickly risen in status as an essential staple in modern music composition due to her notable collaborations, her deft touch and her haunting, evocative soundscapes. Composed and recorded in Berlin and Reykjavík; Hildur Gudnadóttir (cello, zither, processors and voice); additional recordings by Skúli Sverrisson (bass and processors on all tracks except track 7); Jóhann Jóhannsson (organs and processors on tracks 2, 3 and 9); Guðni Franzson (clarinet and bass clarinet on tracks 6 and 10).

Artist:	GUDNADOTTIR, HILDUR
Title:	Without Sinking
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	TO 070LP

Gatefold 2LP version. This release contains 3 extra tracks in addition to the ten on the CD version of Without Sinking (TO 070CD). Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir (b. 1982) is a classically-trained Icelandic cellist and composer, and this is her first full-length release for the Touch label. Best known for her collaborations with múm and guest appearances with Pan Sonic, she has a rich catalog of collaborations and varied projects behind her. Gudnadóttir began playing cello as a child, entering the Reykjavík Music Academy and then moving on to musical studies/composition and new media at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and Universitat der Kunste in Berlin. Back in Iceland, she became very active in the neu-Iceland scene as a member of Kitchen Motors, a Reykjavík-based think tank, record label and art collective, along with internationally-renowned composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. In 2004, she started playing with the band Angel (Ilpo Väisänen and Dirk Dresslehaus). Around that time, she made an album with Dirk (Mr. Schmuck's Farm), and went on to play live with Pan Sonic, later collaborating on their album Katodivaihe/Cathodephase. She released her first solo album, Mount A, under the artist name Lost In Hildurness, on the Reykjavík-based label 12 Tónar in 2006. Gudnadóttir played all the instruments on the album -- vibraphone, viola da gamba, harp and vocals, constructing a work of delicately-layered, contemplative, cello-based ruminations. She has also played frequently with field recording artist and performer BJ Nilsen; delicate duets that conjure the somber rapture of multi-tracked cello -- Gudnadóttir's live playing augmented by laptop loops. As a composer, she has written music for plays, dance performances and films, pieces for chamber orchestras, various instruments, voices and electronics. Gudnadóttir likes to explore the nature and movement of sound, and often turns her experiments into sound and visual installations. Touch presents the work of an artist who has quickly risen in status as an essential staple in modern music composition due to her notable collaborations, her deft touch and her haunting, evocative soundscapes. Composed and recorded in Berlin and Reykjavík; Hildur Gudnadóttir (cello, zither, processors and voice); additional recordings by Skúli Sverrisson (bass and processors on all tracks except track 7); Jóhann Jóhannsson (organs and processors on tracks 2, 3 and 9); Guðni Franzson (clarinet and bass clarinet on tracks 6 and 10).

Artist:	GUDNADOTTIR, HILDUR
Title:	Mount A
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TONE 041CD

This album was originally released by 12 Tónar in 2006 under the moniker Lost In Hildurness, and it is the first solo recording from Hildur Gudnadóttir (who is a member of the Nix Noltes band and has performed regularly with múm and Pan Sonic). In her dreamy soundworld she plays the cello, gamba, zither, khuur and the gamelan, so this CD sounds like nothing else. This is exciting, tranquil, and melancholic stuff and at times it makes you think of a lost place and times gone by -- and the music has the power to take you there. Recording sessions took place both in New York and in a house in Hólar, Iceland, specifically chosen for its good cello acoustics. It is strictly a solo album as Hildur attempted to "involve other people as little as I could." Like the cover art, it is personal and intimate. It has been called "the perfect soundtrack to get lost in a forest at night," but this version, mastered by Denis Blackham, sounds fresher and better than ever. Photography and design by Jon Wozencroft.

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