Var
The Thread
Maiden
Er
The Faultline
The Vision
Nectar
Anima-Mundi
Var-Er

Stark, atmospheric, nebulous, dark, windswept, desolate, luminous, etc ... these are but some of the adjectives that come to mind when trying to describe in words the music of Icelandic composer Viktor Orri Árnason. Odd when you consider that the concept of the album is a celebration of life as we know it, and where the prospect of living forever is contemplated.

"Eilífur weaves together a lucid, near-future narrative via a combination of abstract Icelandic lyrics and adept musical storytelling. The scope and scale of Eilífur is reflected in the extremes of its sound, which moves seamlessly from intimate strings and sombre voices to grand orchestral gestures and vast drones. Eilífur explores what life will be like in the absence of death's ticking clock." [Viktor Orri Árnason] - Viktor studied violin and viola at the Icelandic University of the Arts and composition and conducting at the Hanns Eisler University for Music in Berlin. Viktor's passion for new textures and sounds, in tandem with his singular approach to arrangement, orchestration, instrumentation, conducting, and recording has seen him collaborate with a diverse range of established musicians over the years. [Viktor Orri Árnason website notes]

For this album all of the instrumental, vocal, orchestral and choral parts were performed and recorded separately at different times and locations, and then Árnason applies his creative magic in the ensuing multi-layered mixing process that brings fragments of all this together, and forges new and evocative sonic textures and soundscapes. His technique could be described or perceived as minimalist, not in the sense of constantly repeated patterns and rhythmic sequences ad nauseum like most, but rather in the static characteristics of his deployment of ideas. Unexpected and yet striking harmonic shifts, well-balanced and preconceived sonorities that jive so well as to create unusual and yet beautiful sounds, like a sonic bed over which hover ruminative melodies. In one instance you're lulled into a dreamscape, or traveling back through the annals of time, or drifting towards a distant light. This is music that lures you in, seduces your inner ear and then haunts your mind long after audition.