I Just Finished Recording Music in Iceland 🇮🇸

My First Feelings About It All

Words, words, words - I have plenty of them but they’re still floating around and above me.

First of all, hello from my favorite place in all the world: Iceland. 

This is now my fifth trip over here, and it’s still not my last. If I could split my time between here and the U.S. I would - and maybe one day I will.

I will.

I wrapped up another session at Sundlaugin Studio this week with the lovely Albert Finnbogason at the helm. Sundlaugin is the former practice space and studio of the band, Sigur Rós - one of my favorite bands. Not only did Sigur Rós make music in this space, but so did Björk, The Album Leaf, Julianna Barwick, Damien Rice, Alex Somers, Tangerine Dream, Seabear, Múm, Sóley, Amiina, Jon Hopkins, We Were Promised Jetpacks, and many more

My dear friend Becca Waugh also joined us, documenting the process which is a real treat to solo artists who rarely get any photos of themselves working or performing. All photos in this update are by Becca.

Finishing what we started in 2022, Albert and I tweaked, took space away, added something, didn’t do anything… and all the other things you do or don’t do with songs when you revisit them.

With regards to the newer batch of songs I created this time - the songs shaped, aired out, and then recorded at Sundlaugin…I am not sure how to describe them. They aren’t anything like what I’ve previously released; like the music I have made that people have told me they love. These songs feel…a bit all over the place. This is scary and risky to me - because what if they flop? Maybe they will and maybe they won’t. 

I didn’t try to fit these songs into a box. I let them out with a loosened grip while slamming shut the doors to the chatter of what the outside world asks of musicians in my genres these days (no Chase Bliss pedals were used).

Yes, “genres,” since I often use more than one to describe my music: ambient, post-piano, neo-classical-ish, experimental…

And so for now, I have zipped these songs up in Dropbox and won’t listen to them again for a few weeks, when I am finally settled in Boulder, ready to figure out where to fill in gaps - strings, percussion, small cracks of tiny found sounds…there is still a lot of work to be done but I’m excited to share these with the world at the right time, whenever that is.

Stay up to date with what I’m doing via my Instagram or Housekeys Website.