Andartak is the three-years-in-the-making music project of Arnór Kári Egilsson. Möller Records has released two of Andartak’s albums, ‘Mindscapes’ in 2015, and ‘888’ earlier this year. A few weeks ago, the Bónus Plötur micro-label included his song ‘Tobbi týndur í völundarhúsi’ on its tenth 7” release of the year. We caught up with Arnór to talk about his practice as a musician, and his connection to music.
Andartak’s work could be described as a musical journey. This is especially true of ‘888,’ which was made as a soundtrack for a car journey from Akureyri to Siglufjörður. “Press play at a certain point and […] the album will synchronize with the environment [such as] open fields, mountains, tunnels and the ocean,” Arnór explains. In general, he makes playful ambient and experimental tunes loaded with delicate transitions between electric sounds of variable intensity, constant throes of bright and dark synthesizer, and drum machine sounds.
Arnór started making music in high school on his computer that eventually gave up on him. It wasn’t until years later when he was introduced to hardware synthesizers that his passion for making electronic music came to the fore and Andartak was born. “From then on, the dive has been deep, colorful and continuously adventurous,” he says.
Making electronic music is not his only creative passion. Arnór says, “Be it fine arts, street art/graffiti, illustration, photography, poetics or writing, I have the need to express myself in multiple ways to confront different emotions and developments.” Today he puts music in the foreground and is extremely thankful for the opportunities and feedback he has received. “It makes me feel that I am going in the right direction,” he says.
Andartak will play the SonarLab stage at Sónar Reykjavík in March, along with Cassy, Cold, Denis Sulta, EVA808, Intr0beatz, Jlin, Jónbjörn, Lena Willikens, Simon fknhndsm, Skeng, Volruptus, Yagya, Yamaho and more.
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