Snorri Hallgrimsson - Orbit (2018)

We're pleased to welcome Icelandic composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Snorri Hallgrímsson to the Moderna Records family. He is a long-time collaborator of composer Ólafur Arnalds, and has worked with him on various projects, including ‘Island Songs’, ‘The Chopin Project’, and the BAFTA-winning score for ‘Broadchurch’.

Recorded primarily at Ólafur Arnalds’s studio in Reykjavík, the songs on Orbit explore the difficulties of living in and moving between vastly different places: from Mexico’s sunny days to Iceland’s long winter nights and their emotional toll. Orbit is also about people met along the way, of friends and family whose absence is bittersweet. The concept of ‘home’ is replaced by an ‘orbit’ the composer circles from place to place.

The album sees Hallgrímsson expanding his classical background with elements from electronica, choral traditions, and film music. The result is a stunning blend of haunting strings, distorted beats, intimate pianos, and the composer’s own enveloping voice. The album features strings performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra and engineering/mixing by Addi 800 (Björk, Sigur Rós).