Gyða Valtýsdóttir is one of Iceland’s most forward-thinking composers. A founding member of múm, multi-instrumentalist, and an award-winning composer, Gyða has a diverse and storied discography behind her decades-long career.
On Wednesday, November 20, Gyða will perform a concert exclusively devoted to her Epicycle I and II albums.
Despite being released eight and four years ago, respectively, Gyða decided to revive the Epicycle project due to the strict covid mandates in place during the latter’s release show. “We only used half the venue with people sitting on what appeared to be islands out in the audience,” Gyða remarks of her 2020 concert.
Kickstarting her Epicycle project in 2016, Gyða showcases her artistic interpretations of some of her favourite compositions. Dismissing both temporal and spatial bounds, Epicycle’s nine tracks span works including “Seikilos Epitaph” — the oldest surviving piece of musical notation written more than 2000 years ago — and highlights eccentric composers such as the 12th-century German mystic Hildegard von Bingen and American inventor/composer Harry Partch.
“It’s recorded in this lo-fi, raw style,” Gyða says of Epicycle. “Many of the works are improvised or recorded in a single take with minimal editing.”
Holding a double master’s degrees in music, Gyða was all too familiar with the constraints of classical music’s rigid framework. In a sense, Epicycle symbolises the artist’s attempt to break its norms.
“I needed to clash with the perfectionism found [in classical music] and champion the idea that music can be music. [Epicycle] was just a way to perform music and remove the classical framework,” she says.
World-building composers
Selecting the works for Epicycle came naturally to Gyða. “I chose pieces which I find present a world of their own,” she ruminates. “Like Harry Partch, who is sometimes categorised as a classical composer. He’s an eccentric character, inventing new instruments, and the world is…” Gyða pauses, collecting her thoughts.
“There’s often a great divide between classical and non-classical music. And there’s a lot that can’t be defined as either but somehow end up in one of those worlds. I wanted to try and erase those borders, and demonstrate that they don’t exist.”
Revisiting the concept for her second instalment in 2020, Epicycle II echoes the original. Written in collaboration with eight Icelandic composers, each of them approaches the subject material with their unique take. As opposed to the distant connection — both in time and space — between Gyða and her Epicycle subject matter, the artist folded close friends into her next creation.
“I decided I wanted to work with musicians who are alive, working under the same notion: those who I feel have managed to create their own realm through their music,” she says.
“I find it incredibly interesting and rewarding to be able to visit someone else’s world,” continues Gyða. “Both of these albums feature composers which, to me, have constructed this unique space. As a performer, it’s very exciting to enter these worlds,” Gyða says, changing her tune.
“Then again, it’s sort of an obsession for me to stop categorising things. To remove categorisation and the walls that separate things. When I find resonance in something, it has nothing to do with time, geography, or genre.”
While in the process of Epicycle II, Gyða was astonished by the amount of talent surrounding her. “On the first album, I could’ve chosen any composition from any time period, from any country. On the second, I almost didn’t leave 101. I think that showcases how wealthy we are of talented people,” Gyða concludes.
Catch Gyða Valtýsdóttir perform in Harpa’s Norðurljós on Wednesday, November 20. Tickets are 7.990 ISK, available here.
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