Eydís Evensen - Bylur (2021) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer EYDÍS EVENSEN has confirmed details of her debut album, BYLUR, which will be released on April 23rd via XXIM Records, Sony’s new imprint for innovative, post-genre instrumental music. The collection follows the 27-year-old’s debut single, ‘Brotin’ – the label’s first official release, which appeared at the end of January – and features thirteen pieces written throughout her life so far for piano, with additional strings, brass and electronics on a number of tracks.

Described by Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-nominated composer Dustin O’Halloran as “a beautiful debut full of rich and nuanced arrangements”, BYLUR, EVENSEN confides, “spans over 20 years of my life. It’s all my ups and downs. It’s been a long time coming.” The album was recorded and produced at Reykjavík’s Greenhouse Studios by its co-founder, composer Valgeir Sigurðsson, who was raised in the same small town as EVENSEN and has worked with artists including Björk, Nico Muhly and Ben Frost.

It also features a guest appearance from award-winning Icelandic singer GDRN on ‘Midnight Moon’, the album’s only track with vocals. The single is out now along with an artistic new video directed by Einar Egils. The track starts off with a string quartet instrumentation which feels like an Icelandic lullaby; comforting and constant. The piece then transcends into the main movement which includes a piano, a string quartet and the Moving vocals of Icelandic artist GDRN. Valgeir Sigurðsson adds a soft wave of electronic textures throughout the piece, lifting it up to new heights. Check out the video on YouTube.

She gives some additional background: “Midnight Moon first came into being as a poem in Icelandic. I was living in New York City at the time, in a rather stressful and busy period of my life. I always carried a notebook with me (I still do) to scribble down melodies, thoughts, whatever comes to my mind. I remember sitting down in a café in midtown Manhattan; thinking through some events and emotions while observing the fast pace of the city, when the words came to me. I immediately started scribbling them down, it was that particular feeling of creative and natural flow that sometimes just takes over for a moment. The poem wouldn’t let me go, so I used it as the inspiration for a piece of music for piano and string quartet. And, because that still didn’t feel like all was said, I came back to it a bit later, translated the poem into English and turned the piano piece into a song. To me Midnight Moon is essentially about being in love and all of love’s wonders; how it can lift us above all negativity only to exist on higher ground, living united as one."

TRACKLIST

1. Eydís Evensen - Deep Under
2. Eydís Evensen - Dagdraumur
3. Eydís Evensen - The Northern Sky
4. Eydís Evensen - Wandering I
5. Eydís Evensen - Vetur Genginn í Garð
6. Eydís Evensen - Fyrir Mikael
7. Eydís Evensen - Wandering II
8. Sólveig Vaka Eyþórsdóttir - Circulation
9. Eydís Evensen - Innsti Kjarni og Tilbrigði
10. Eydís Evensen - Næturdögg
11. Eydís Evensen - Midnight Moon
12. Eydís Evensen - Brotin
13. Eydís Evensen - Bylur



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