THE BLOG

19
May

Kæra Jelena

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05
Dec

Little Moscow

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Little Moscow is the new EP from Valgeir Sigurðsson, out on November 15 on Bedroom Community. The EP is the soundtrack of the namesake movie by Grímur Hákonarson.

“I wanted to create a score that resonates with the isolation, suggests nostalgia for a simpler time and acknowledges the recent shifts”
– Valgeir Sigurðsson –

Composed, produced, mixed and mastered by: Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík.
Performed by: Budapest Art Orchestra, Francesco Fabris, Daniel Pioro & Valgeir Sigurðsson.

ABOUT THE MOVIE:

In the Cold War, Iceland was a western democracy. The United States operated a base there and Iceland was a member of NATO. Coalitions of center-right parties ran the government and town councils all over the country. But there was one exception: In Neskaupstaður, a town of 1500 people in the east of the country, Socialists ran the show. They came to power in 1946 and kept control for 52 years. The town of Neskaupstadur has been undergoing a lot of transitions in recent years. For half a century the town was ruled by socialists and called “Little Moscow”. These days capitalism has taken over, companies have been privatized and a tunnel is being drilled through the mountain that will open the community to the outside world. Director Grímur Hákonarson tells the curious story of a town in the east of Iceland that until not very long ago was one of the most isolated places in the country.

Purchase Little Moscow here.

05
Dec

TWIN MIRROR

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Your Mind Is The One Place To Find The Truth.

Sam, a 33-year old man recovering from a recent break-up, returns to his hometown Basswood, West Virginia, for the funeral of his best friend. Understandably depressed and bitter, he feels completely out of sorts and out of place… But when he wakes up in his hotel room with a bloody shirt and no memory of his whereabouts the previous night, he embarks on a twisted investigation to find the truth.

RELEASE DATE: Coming Soon

PLATFORMS: PlayStation®4, Xbox One, PC

DEVELOPER: Dontnod Entertainment

GENRES: Adventure

05
Dec

DRAUMALANDIÐ (DREAMLAND)

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How much unspoiled nature should we preserve and what do we sacrifice for clean, renewable energy? Dreamland gradually turns into a disturbing picture of corporate power taking over small communities.

Dreamland is a film about a nation standing at cross-roads. Leading up to the country’s greatest economic crisis, the government started the largest mega project in the history of Iceland, to build the biggest dam in Europe to provide Alcoa cheap electricity for an aluminum smelter in the rugged east fjords of Iceland. Today Iceland is left holding a huge dept and an uncertain future.

In Dreamland a nation with abundance of choices gradually becomes caught up in a plan to turn its wilderness and beautiful nature into a massive system of hydro-electric and geothermal power plants with dams and reservoirs. Clean energy brings in polluting industry and international corporations. It’s the dark side of green energy.

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR:Svanhildur Thors
RUNNING TIME:89 minutes
55 min TV version available
FORMATS:35mm, HDCAM, DigiBeta
DIRECTORS:Þorfinnur Guðnason
Andri Snær Magnason
PRODUCER:Sigurður Gísli Pálmason
CO-PRODUCERS:Hanna Björk Valsdóttir
Hrönn Kristinsdóttir
Þórir Snær Sigurjónsson
Hlín Jóhannesdóttir
BASED ON A BOOK BY:Andri Snær Magnason
CINEMATOGRAPHY:Þorfinnur Guðnason
Guðmundur Bjartmarsson
Hjalti Stefánsson
Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
EDITOR:Eva Lind Höskuldsdóttir
SOUND DESIGN:Kjartan Kjartansson
Björn Viktorsson
Huldar Freyr Arnarsson
MUSIC:Valgeir Sigurðsson
GRAPHICS:Sírnir Einarsson
COLOR GRADING:Steinþór Birgisson
ONLINE EDITING:Steinþór Birgisson
Elísabet Thoroddsen
POST-PRODUCTION:The Engine Room Reykjavík / Nordisk Film Oslo
GENRE:Feature length documentary
LANGUAGE:Icelandic, English subtitles
ASPECT RATIO:16:9
AUDIO:Dolby digital
PRODUCTION FORMAT:35mm, 16mm, 8mm, HD, DV
PREMIERE DATE:Iceland, April 2009
INTERNATIONAL PREMIER:IDFA, Amsterdam 2009, Feature-length Competition
COPYRIGHT:Ground Control Productions, 2009

 

05
Dec

WOMAN UNDONE

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Brokentalkers with Project Arts Centre, Mermaid Arts Centre and LÓKAL Performing Arts Theatre

A fusion of theatre, music and dance, Woman Undone is a re-imagining of singer Mary Coughlan’s extraordinary life and her difficult childhood. It tells the story of a young woman who endured abuse, addiction and mental illness and who’s discovery or art and music was her redemption.

Featuring Mary Coughlan alongside female quartet Mongoose performing an original score by Valgeir Sigurðsson which fuses electronic music with live instrumentation and a haunting vocal score.

This show combines Brokentalkers’ distinctive blend of biography, socio-political discourse and breathtaking theatricality with the musical talent of Coughlan and Sigurdsson to create a show that is beautiful, insightful, inspiring. Woman Undone has been created with funding from the Arts Council.

Woman Undone is being created with funding from Arts Council Ireland and is a Co-Production between Brokentalkers, Project Arts Centre (Dublin), Mermaid Arts Centre (Bray) and Lókal Performing Arts (Reykjavík). The development of the piece was also supported by Wicklow County Council.

Written by: Gary Keegan and Feidlim Canon (Brokentalkers), and Mary Coughlan
Directed by: Gary Keegan and Feidlim Cannon
Performed by: Mary Coughlan, Molly O’Mahony, Ailbhe Dunne, Muireann Ní Cheannabháin, CaraDunne and Erin O’Reilly
Dramaturgy by: Bjarni Jónsson
Music Composition and Production by: Valgeir Sigurdsson
Lighting by: SJ Shiels
Design by: Sabine Dargent
Costume by: Sarah Foley
Movement Direction by: Eddie Kay

05
Dec

ARCHITECTURE OF LOSS

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Stephen Petronio’s melancholy, disturbingly beautiful new Architecture of Loss…is not trying to show us mourning as a response to loss; he’s showing us loss as absence and the evanescence of supporting structures. …it feels the way a room feels when someone dear to you has gone away for a long time.

DanceBeat at Arts Journal

Duration: 35 minutes Premiere: March 6, 2012
Premiere Venue: The Joyce Theater
Commission Partners: Nordic House (Faroe Islands)
Watch an excerpt
Music: Valgeir Sigurðsson
Costumes: Guðrun & Guðrun
Visual Design: Rannva Kunoy (Artwork) & Ravi Rajan (Projections)
Lighting: Ken Tabachnick

 

05
Dec

WIDE SLUMBER FOR LEPIDOPTERISTS

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“Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists is a renewed hope for opera-theatre and a breath of fresh air for contemporary opera lovers.“

—OperaWire review by Jennifer Pyron, 22 January 2021

 

“Wide slumber is an investigation of relationship, of intimacy, of intrusion, of between, of boundary. Its realm desires to identify assumptions and then stroke them to the point they shudder and release their lenses, films, gauze to expose some yet-unimagined beyond.”

—a.rawlings

Inspired by the award-winning book of the same name by poet a.rawlings, Wide slumber for lepidopterists pairs sleep and dream studies with lepidoptery (the study of butterflies and moths). Tracking the stages of sleep and pairing them with the life cycle of butterflies and moths, insomnia is mirrored in the birth of the egg and narcolepsy in larval hatching. And when the caterpillar starts its final moult, dreams begin, weaving around us as tightly as a cocoon until we are somnambulant, a chrysalis ready to emerge as a moth.

It’s a story, it’s not a story.

It has elements of story.

Pattern your breath on the sound of moth wings, magnified and frenzied, as you fight for sleep in a suffocating tangle of sheets. This is a poetic fantasia, an erotic nightmare-scape. So we dream the same – do we dream the same?

A small ensemble of musicians—three singers and one performer—conjure an ethereal and visceral world of cyclic metamorphosis. Each of the three singers embodies a persona within the text; the Insomniac, the Somnopterist (sleep scientist), and the Lepidopterist. A hybrid loom—a dream machine—is a centre stage object that undergoes constant transformation in the hands of the fourth character: the Weaver.

Even when the body falls asleep, the brain’s hearing pathways do not shut down. Even in the hours of deepest slumber, sound can be imprinted on your memory.

A team of scientists including Harvard University lepidopterists and University College London sleep research scientists worked closely with us on the creation of WiDE SLUMBER. We have curated a series of events that can be presented in tandem with the performance including a butterfly pinning workshop, lectures on the metamorphosis of butterflies and sleep science, and installations.

WiDE SLUMBER for Lepidopterists is produced by VaVaVoom Theatre and Bedroom Community and was premiered in May 2014, at the 28th edition of Reykjavik Arts Festival.

Composer: Valgeir Sigurðsson (Iceland)

Text: a. rawlings (Iceland / Canada)

Stage Director  / Adaptation for Stage: Sara Martí (Iceland)

Dramaturgy / Adaptation for Stage: Sigríður Sunna Reynisdóttir (Iceland)

Stage Design: Eva Signý Berger (Iceland)

Costume:   Harpa Einarsdóttir (Iceland)

Light / Video: Ingi Bekk (Iceland)

Animation / Video Art: Pierre-Alain Giraud (France)

Sound Design: Dan Bora (USA)

Choreographer: Valgerður Rúnarsdóttir (Iceland)

Prop Design: Marie Tanya Keller (USA)

Producing Organisation: VaVaVoom Theatre and Bedroom Community

WIDE SLUMBER for lepidopterists pairs sleep and dream studies with lepidoptery, conjuring an ethereal and visceral world of cyclic metamorphosis.

Tracking the stages of sleep and pairing them with the life cycle of Lepidopterae (butterflies and moths), the audience is lulled into a cocoon where the borders between dreams and reality are blurred.

A small group of musicians accompanies three singers who embody personae within WIDE SLUMBER; The Insomniac, The Somnopterist and The Lepidopterist. A hybrid loom — a dream machine — is a centre-stage object that undergoes constant transformation in the hands of the fourth character; The Weaver.

05
Dec

MEDEA

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05
Dec

EXTREMALISM

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EXTREMALISMEMIO GRECO I PIETER C. SCHOLTEN

Extremalism explores the way individuals react to today’s crisis. What does a body do in extreme circumstances ? How does it cope in a minimal setting?

20 years ago the collaboration between Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten began. In this anniversary piece, they go back to the intrinsic qualities that define their earlier works. With the dancers from the Ballet National de Marseille and ICKamsterdam, they can look back and give a new interpretation of their work.

Creation: 12.06.2015 – Théâtre Royal Carré (NL)
Concept and Choreography: Emio Greco | Pieter C. Scholten
Dramaturgy: Jesse Vanhoeck
Light sculpture: Studio Stallinga
Original composition: Valgeir Sigurðsson
Soundscaping: Pieter C.Scholten
Lighting: Henk Danner
Costumes and masks: Clifford Portier

Production: Ballet National de Marseille / ICKamsterdam
Coproduction: Holland Festival (NL), Festival Montpellier Danse 2015
Napoli Teatro Festival (IT), Maison de la Culture d’Amiens (FR)
Creation residence: La Friche Belle de Mai

04
Dec

Little Moscow

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Little Moscow is the new EP from Valgeir Sigurðsson, out on November 15 on Bedroom Community. The EP is the soundtrack of the namesake movie by Grímur Hákonarson.

“I wanted to create a score that resonates with the isolation, suggests nostalgia for a simpler time and acknowledges the recent shifts”
– Valgeir Sigurðsson –

Composed, produced, mixed and mastered by: Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík.
Performed by: Budapest Art Orchestra, Francesco Fabris, Daniel Pioro & Valgeir Sigurðsson.

ABOUT THE MOVIE:

In the Cold War, Iceland was a western democracy. The United States operated a base there and Iceland was a member of NATO. Coalitions of center-right parties ran the government and town councils all over the country. But there was one exception: In Neskaupstaður, a town of 1500 people in the east of the country, Socialists ran the show. They came to power in 1946 and kept control for 52 years. The town of Neskaupstadur has been undergoing a lot of transitions in recent years. For half a century the town was ruled by socialists and called “Little Moscow”. These days capitalism has taken over, companies have been privatized and a tunnel is being drilled through the mountain that will open the community to the outside world. Director Grímur Hákonarson tells the curious story of a town in the east of Iceland that until not very long ago was one of the most isolated places in the country.

Purchase Little Moscow here.

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