Amiina Create Unique Soundtracks

Amiina’s Saturday set at the Andrews Theatre was truly one of the highlights of ATP Iceland. The last two songs were performed as a film score for old silhouette animation shorts by the German animator Lotte Reiniger, from 1922 and 1954 respectively. “Cinderella” and “Aladdin And The Magic Lamp” were accompanied by Amiina‘s trademark strings, glockenspiel and saw, which gave the whole screening a very unique and delicate atmosphere.
After the show, Amiina’s Hildur Ársælsdóttir told me that the project began after an English film festival, the Branchage, asked them to compose music for Lotte’s silhouette animation films. According to Hildur, Lotte’s one-of-a-kind films, which give life to paper cut-outs, amazed the band so much that they agreed to score a few of them. Hildur says that Amiina have as of yet finished three songs, and are now eager to make more music for the silhouette animations.
“We haven’t done any other film scores, but we are going to Paris in the autumn to score a famous French film “Fantômas,” in celebration of its 100 year anniversary. Yann Tiersen is in charge of the project. He wanted some musicians to score the five episodes of the film, and he asked us to participate. We have worked with him before, playing strings for him—we’ll probably play strings on his new album as well. He plays the violin himself and his view on using string instruments is kind of similar to ours. We have a good connection.”
Although Amiina’s collaboration with Sigur Rós is their longest and best known, Hildur tells me she thinks it’s good that the boys have got other musicians to play with them. Touring around the world with Sigur Rós is no longer easy for Amiina, as the members have children at this point. Shorter projects, like the ones with Yann Tiersen, are easier to arrange and therefore more likely to happen.
When it comes to ATP Iceland she thinks everything was very well organised. The unusual location, the old American military base, also intrigues her. “The atmosphere is strange at the base, as it feels a little bit like a ghost town. It was always quite strange to have a little piece of America here inside of Iceland. The base does fit really well for these kinds of culture events.”
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Pre-Saturday Night Party Party
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Bus trip to ATP festival provided by Reykjavík Excursions