Experimental composer Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir captivates together with her distinctively natural soundscapes. Mixing methodical craftsmanship with an innate curiosity, Bergrún concocts slowly evolving auditory experiences that includes breath, metallic sounds, and reedy textures. Her compositions create dynamic conversations via swelling tones that shift from whispers to cacophonous clamor. Experiencing her music dwell is a multisensory journey enhanced by lighting, fog, and palpable vibrations that actually immerse the viewers.

If you see Bergrún’s identify on a program, anticipate the surprising: revolutionary instrumental strategies, intriguing timbral mixtures, or samples reworked via digital manipulation. She has cultivated a singular creative identification whereas regularly presenting contemporary concepts that emerge as compelling contributions amid the overwhelming entry of our web period.

My current encounters together with her work have been significantly placing. In January, I attended the Darkish Music Days pageant in Iceland, the place the Apparat ensemble premiered Bergrún’s piece, Intraloper. This composition for brass quartet, thundersheets, and dwell electronics explores themes of local weather nervousness and claustrophobia and has been nominated for the distinguished 2026 Nordic Council Music Prize. In March, Norway’s Borealis pageant showcased Roföldur, a collaboration with John McCowen for contrabass clarinet, soprano recorder, and tape, which was crafted utilizing the Acousmonium multichannel system at INA grm. The work seeks to “shake John free” from the confines of his instrument.

All through her eclectic profession, Bergrún has obtained commissions from esteemed organizations just like the Worldwide Modern Ensemble, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and SPOR Pageant. She has additionally had the distinction of touring with music giants Björk and Sigur Rós and was appointed assistant professor of composition on the Iceland College of the Arts in 2022. Within the midst of this thriving season, we had the chance to listen to extra about her artistic course of.

What’s your course of for locating the fascinating textures and timbres that seem in your compositions?

I deeply resonate with the thought of noise as a purifying pressure—a terrific equalizer that sweeps away the litter. Classical tonality and concord may be so pristine that they typically really feel alienating because of their demand for perfection and management. This attitude seemingly stems from my typical musical coaching, the place I used to be taught that there was just one appropriate method to produce sound, and any deviation was deemed inferior.

This inflexible technique of apply positioned me in an uncomfortable place, pushing me in the direction of a compositional fashion that embraces freedom and exploration. Early in my composing journey, I started to experiment with graphic notation and prolonged strategies, continually considering how you can create areas for spontaneity and likelihood in my scores. Merely put, I’m intrigued by what may need been thought-about “unsuitable enjoying” again in 1880.

Even as we speak, I typically discover myself resisting typical scoring strategies because of my disconnection from conventional codecs. Rhythm, for related causes, may current a problem; after I do have interaction with rhythmic parts, I want uneven, halting iterations that really feel barely imperfect and stumbling.

Earlier than placing pen to paper, I dedicate vital time to contemplation, creativeness, studying, and reflecting about my focus. I hardly ever begin composing and not using a deep understanding of why I’m creating the work. An envisioned sound typically leads the method. By the point I transfer in the direction of notating for performers, the piece sometimes exists in my thoughts as an concept, a system, or a syntax—I’m merely translating the unheard into sounds that may be perceived. This sometimes occurs late within the course of. Whereas I’m undecided I totally addressed your query, I hope this offers perception into my artistic journey.

Your music rewards affected person listening. How do you think about time and length once you’re creating a brand new work? Did finding out with Pauline Oliveros affect this strategy?

My curiosity in durational composition and attentive listening blossomed alongside my introduction to meditation at round twenty-two. Throughout this time, David Lynch introduced Transcendental Meditation to Reykjavík, suggesting it’d save us after the banking collapse. Though I had dabbled in guided meditation, this deeper apply profoundly reworked me.

Concurrently, I found works by Alvin Lucier, resembling Music on a Lengthy Skinny Wire, and later met Pauline Oliveros. Their approaches to listening and scoring struck a primal chord inside me. It was primarily via Pauline’s affect that I pursued research at Mills Faculty, exposing me to various composers and revolutionary compositional strategies.

Meditation has been a recurring apply that I typically lose contact with however at all times miss when absent. In some ways, my work seeks to discover the attainment of a nonetheless, vibrating thoughts, alongside every part that surrounds this pursuit.

Your interviews reveal deep inquiry behind your compositions, but the current performances of your works at Darkish Music Days and Borealis had little context in this system. Do you discover it useful for listeners to realize perception into your artistic intentions, or do program notes danger being too prescriptive?

The absence of program notes for these performances wasn’t fully intentional, however I typically grapple with how you can strike the best tone and depth when discussing my work.

This battle might join again to the meditative nature I discussed, and the sort of area I attempt to create in my work. My objective is for performers to take pleasure in interpretive freedom and for audiences to be totally current, participating with the work via their very own distinctive experiences. I want to keep away from extreme steering in program notes or delivering a selected message.

Nonetheless, when articulating perception, program notes do have their benefit. I ceaselessly write reflections on emotions and ideas associated to my work whereas composing, but I’m sometimes reluctant to share these texts verbatim. They primarily help me in understanding my creations, and I prefer to hold the language and the sound separate.

As an educator, what feels essential to impart to younger composers as we speak that differs out of your experiences in class?

This query resonates with me, as my path into experimental music typically felt devoid of institutional help. I struggled to narrate to the traditions handed down from earlier generations—traditions which can be certainly worthwhile in lots of contexts. As an alternative, I discovered solace and validation inside the outsider composer group, significantly via S.L.Á.T.U.R, which granted me the liberty to discover with out worry of constructing errors.

Consequently, it’s very important for me to encourage college students who suppose unconventionally or are exploring new strategies. I need them to really feel acknowledged and empowered to pursue their concepts to any extent they need. It is equally essential that they uncover the restrictions of their concepts independently, studying via experimentation and failure. Usually, they discover stunning path, arriving at new understandings with out my interference, however with the door held open for exploration.

What concepts and sonic explorations excite you as you navigate the worldwide circuit of experimental music festivals?

Just lately, I’ve been immersing myself in literature and contemplation surrounding deep ecology and ecosophy. My lifelong ardour for science fiction stays influential, encouraging me to think about life from each exterior and inside views. I discover it charming to discover the interactions between dwelling, deceased, and in-between entities—none of it definitive, all felt inside, however profoundly participating for my senses. I’m fascinated by how techniques regulate and the perpetual middleman states of existence.

At current, articulating how these ideas translate into sound is difficult, although they inevitably manifest after I decide to the work. This course of appears contingent upon the second, sensing what must emerge. But, as soon as a conclusion materializes, the foundational system or construction of the thought already exists, able to obtain it. It turns into a apply of patiently sitting with concepts till they crystallize.

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