Different Sounds: NonniMal’s Electric Dreams

Jón Brynjar Óskarsson—best known for making fast-paced and hypnotic techno music under his lead pseudonym NonniMal—is a musician that has been an active member of Iceland’s electronic music scene for the past decade. In April, he performed at the Sónar Reykjavík showcase of well-respected Icelandic dub-techno label Thule Records and his 2016 ‘Freyja EP’ was, interestingly, the first record released by Æ Recordings’—a Thule Records sub-label—in fourteen years.

NonniMal has been around music and DJing for as long as he can remember. For the past eight to nine years, when he is not at his day-job from 7am-4pm, he makes music. “I look at music as mental therapy, and I like to express myself through sounds,” the young producer says. “I just sit down and start playing my keyboard and usually something completely spontaneous and unplanned happens.”

“Sometimes I’ve made 15-20 tracks in a day… I have a couple of thousand tracks laying around.”

NonniMal chooses to fly under the radar when it comes to live performances, playing only a handful of carefully selected festival gigs or at one of Reykjavík’s nightlife hotspots. On SoundCloud, however, the man is a dynamo. He posts new songs, under various pseudonyms and within various genres, on a regular basis. “Sometimes I’ve made 15-20 tracks a day. I have a couple of thousand tracks laying around,” he says. “They have various emotions, which results in me creating different characters. I grew up with all kinds of music, so it doesn’t always end up as techno.”

Hot Love—one of NonniMal’s many music projects—sees him collaborate with former GusGus member Maggi Legó. Their five-track album ‘2 Shjitty In $uckCity’ was posted on SoundCloud a few months ago. “Its a project that started when Maggi—my best friend and mentor—told me that I had good taste in music and that I should make some myself,” NonniMal explains. “You will probably never see us perform live. But, I recently bought us some band costumes. So, never say never!”

Listen to NonniMal and Hot Love at soundcloud.com/nonnimal.