Our complete podcast series is available these fine platforms and on Soundcloud – below at the end of the post is our complete Ambient Meditation Series:
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For Volume 9 we are joined by Icelandic duo Hugar consisting of multi-instrumentalists, Bergur Þórisson and Pétur Jónsson. Their music might be described as minimalistic, with only the essential emotive layers to fill in the "white space." You might say there is a certain Icelandic quality to their sound, wide open and dreamy with artifacts of such greats as Ólafur Arnalds and Jóhann Jóhannson, with whom they have also collaborated. Their new album, The Vasulka Effect: Music For The Motion Picture, is out on Sony Music Masterworks later this year on October 2nd. This project is a unique concept, both an inspiring and unique album that is an extension of the original soundtrack they did for the documentary on visual artists Vasulka. For the mix, we are taken on an extensive journey of both familiar and unfamiliar, with a variety of feelings and textures – it is also the most extended mix we have ever had on the show. So as always, put on the headphones and get to know the sounds of Hugar.
Ambient Meditations By Hugar Tracklist:
The Hamrahlid Choir, Hugi Guðmundsson – Syng mín sál
Hugar – A New Renaissance
Gyda Valtýsdottir – Unborn
Davíð Þór Jónsson – Nú vil ég enn í nafni þínu
Magnús Jóhann – Bullboxer 43
Hania Rani – Today It Came
Viktor Orri Árnason, Yair Elazar Glotman – Hljóð
alva noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto – Microon III
Dustin O'Halloran – Opus 36
múm – Green Green Grass Of Tunnel
ADHD – Sálmur
Anna Thorvaldsdottir, International Contemporary Ensemble – In the Light of Air: III. Existence
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra, Anthony Weeden – Good Night, Day
Hugar – Fold
Eyþór Gunnarsson, Jóel Pálsson – Svefn-g-englar
Nils Frahm – The Dane
Manu Delago, Hugar – Delta Sleep (Hugar Rework)
A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie, Dustin O'Halloran – The Slow Descent Has Begun
Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, Benjamin Britten – Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: Canto secondo: Sostenuto
Hauschka – Dew and Spiderwebs
Robot Koch, Viktor Orri Árnason – Stars As Eyes
Hugar – Faded Reflection
Björk – Cosmogony
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Bibo No Aozora
Ólafur Arnalds, Alice Sara Ott – Eyes Shut – Nocturne in C Minor
Halldór Eldjárn – Tilbrigði við lendingu
Gabríel Ólafs – Klaki
Atli Örvarsson, Gyda Valtýsdottir – Dropar
Jon Hopkins, Kelly Lee Owens – Luminous Spaces
JFDR – My Work
Skúli Sverrisson & Óskar Guðjónsson – Óli
Ómar Guðjónsson – Útundan
Matthildur – Wonder
Moses Sumney – Plastic
Beyoncé, James Blake – Forward
Björk Guðmundsdóttir – Unison
Bon Iver – 715 – CR∑∑KS
Hildur Guðnadóttir, David Wiebe – Heyr Himnasmiður
Víkingur Ólafsson, Jean-Philippe Rameau – The Arts and the Hours
Film trailer Below:
More About the Hugar:
When Bergur Þórisson and Pétur Jónsson self-released their eponymous debut album in 2014, they were a pair of talented local musicians from Seltjarnarnes, the smallest township in Iceland, just outside of Reykjavík. Six years later, on the strength of that one free download, they have collaborated with their country's leading artists Björk, Sigur Rós, Ólafur Arnalds and Jóhann Jóhannson. International praise followed from The Independent, Rolling Stone, Clash, KEXP, and The Line of Best Fit, they racked up 52 million streams and counting, and released their fully formed major-label debut, 'Varða,' on Sony Music Masterworks.
Hugar's flourishing continues on 'The Vasulka Effect: Music for the Motion Picture,' which originated as a score that Þórisson and Jónsson created for the docu-film about video-art pioneers Vasulka, but grew into something more; this 20-song album. The duo explain, "after doing the score for the film about Vasulka, we continued to be inspired by their story, warmth, art and groundbreaking technology, so we kept working on the music."
'The Vasulka Effect' charts the lives and work of Steina Vasulka, a classical violinist from Iceland, and Czech filmmaker Woody Vasulka who married and moved to New York in the ferment of its 1960s art scene. Theirs were among the first and most lasting forays into the possibilities of electronic image generation and live-video processing. Their influence in art is far-reaching and profound.
Vasulka have exhibited at Tate Modern, MOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. According to The Guggenheim (where Vasulka are Fellows), the duo were "crucial to the development of the city's media art scene – not only through their own work, but through their founding of experimental venue The Kitchen, which is basically where the non-CBGBs part of the '70s happened."
'The Vasulka Effect' is a story made of equal parts technological adventure and human warmth, full of life's richness and loss. In their score Hugar captured the entire spectrum of the film's concept and feeling, and also revealed an aspect of their music that was always hidden in plain sight: In contrast to the post-rock peaks of their previous, more maximal album 'Varða', here Hugar purvey dreamlike ambience and subtle, but vivid compositions. The multi instrumentalists retain their signature modern-orchestral palette – majestic landscapes of piano, brass, and strings, rimed with guitars and electronics – but pare away all excess, until only the most elemental gestures and deep-breathed rhythms remain.
Are complete podcast series is available below and also on these fine platforms…
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