Toggi Jonsson Quartet - Hagi (August 31, 2021)

Bassist Þorgrímur „Toggi“ Jónsson presents his second solo album named Hagi. This music consists of 10 pieces plus 2 extra, written with this personal and formation of a band in mind. Here you have melodic and thoughtful compositions that varies from hymn like church music to pop and/or rock music of the 70ths.

Influenced by the Icelandic nature and the ever changing weather, perhaps mostly from the Westfjords of Iceland, hence the title track Hagi, wich is a beautiful farm that has been in the same family for over 100 years located in the south of the Westfjords, and the track Rauðisandur, aka Red Sand Beach, one of the most impressive and beutiful places of the Westfjords.

1. Þoka 05:05

2. Von 05:17

3. Hagi 03:48

4. Anda Inn 03:48

5. 6:20 03:58

6. Uppúr Þurru 03:55

7. Hugsa Hlýtt 06:09

8. Kraðak 03:51

9. Fyrir Þig 03:48

10. Rauðisandur 05:43

11. Einn Fyrir (extra number) 04:27

12. Innan Um (extra number) 04:41

Þorgrimur Toggi Jonsson – acoustic and electric bass

Rögnvaldur Borgþórsson – guitar

Tómas Jónsson – piano, wurlitzer, mellotrone and more keys

Magnús Trygvason Eliassen – drums

Produced by Toggi Jonsson and the band.

Recorderd December 10th and 11th 2020 at Sundlaugin Studios by Birgir Jón Birgisson. Mixed by Ívar Ragnarsson and mastered by Friðfinnur Oculus Sigurðsson.

Graphic design by Klara Arnalds

All music by Thorgrimur Toggi Jonsson

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Tumi Árnason - Hlýnun (July 23, 2021)

"At the outset everything merges. Echoes from the sound sources shroud perception.

Steadily the reflections subside as we draw closer to a vital ever-changing core."

Icelandic saxophonist and composer Tumi Árnason presents high-concept sombre opus Hlýnun (Warming), a piece that addresses our current existential threat, the climate crisis, through free jazz and experimental improvisation. Accompanying Tumi are bassist Skúli Sverrisson, drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and keyboardist Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson.

Hlýnun invites the listener into a dynamic ecosystem. Four instruments orbit each other, trade ideas and create vital soundscapes. A living multiplicity that grows and flourishes, gains balance but is threatened by an ever advancing hegemony. Songs of extinct birds are unveiled through melodies and a requiem for life itself bursts out of the organ. Man’s diagrams and machinery invade the composition, rousing intensities and endangering its unity. Members are lost in the commotion, the ecosystem regresses and becomes an apocalyptic ambiance, hiss and silence.

"At the end we dissolve into dust and phantoms

amid machinery and void."

1. I - Lungu

2. II - ‘Ō‘ō‘ā‘ā

3. III - Svart haf

4. IV - Söngur úr svartholinu

5. V - Um heimsslit, VI - Suð

Composed and written by Tumi Árnason

Tumi Árnason - Tenor Saxophone

Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson - Piano, Rhodes, Farfisa

Skúli Sverrisson - Electric Bass

Magnús Trygvason Eliassen - Drums

Recorded and Mixed by Albert Finnbogason

Mastered by Sarah Register

Album Artwork designed by Elín Edda Þorsteinsdóttir and Íbbagoggur

Artwork Layout by Elín Edda Þorsteinsdóttir

Cover Art by Þorsteinn Cameron

Texts by Brynja Hjálmsdóttir, Tómas Ævar Ólafsson and Tumi Árnason

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