björn
interviews
amiina
amina:
maría huld markan - violin
hildur ársælsdóttir - violin
edda rún ólafsdóttir - viola
sólrún sumarliðadóttir - cello
what is amina?
amina is a
string quartet comprising four icelandic young women, founded in the summer
of 1998. we met in tónlistarskólinn í reykjavík [the music school of
reykjavík] and started playing together in 1996. we started doing lots of
studio work with all kinds of pop and rock bands because there weren't many
string groups taking on that sort of flexible and time-consuming work.
is that how you met sigur rós?
yes, they
phoned us in the summer of 1999 when they had finished ágætis byrjun. they
needed string players for their album release concert at the icelandic opera
house. they had used an octet from the icelandic symphony orchestra on the
album and they gave us those octet arrangements which we shrunk down to
quartet arrangements. then they talked to us again for the union chapel
concert in summer 2000 and we've been touring with them since.
how were the strings written for
the new album, ( )?
the
strings had been evolving gradually during the two years of touring but the
concert arrangements were very basic. these arrangements had just sort of
happened organically without thinking so when we were faced with recording
the album we sat down for the first time and started analyzing what we were
going to play. we listened to concert recordings and wrote a few lines of
notes but scrapped them because we found that with the sort of music that
sigur rós play, it's more about atmosphere and spontaneity. after we had
established the general atmosphere we wanted, the strings were basically
improvised in the studio until we were happy with the result.
how was sigur rós involved in
the process?
they
weren't very involved really, they were mostly just kicking back and having
fun in the studio while we were recording. after we'd been playing for an
hour we'd call them in and ask them "hey guys, what do you think of this?"
and they were like "uhm yeah, that's cool". kjartan was there most of the
time to oversee the recording with ken [thomas, the engineer] but they just
let us do our thing and didn't interfere much.
what's it like working with
sigur rós?
it's
great. it was a little difficult when we came in at first because we'd been
classically trained where everything is about instructing you what's right
and what isn't and you just play the notes on the sheet, whereas sigur rós
have some kind of telepathy thing going on where they just sit down and play
without ever needing to talk, which was very different from the classical
conventions we were used to. we weren't sure if they wanted us to play
really grand-like or stay in the background because they never given us any
instructions. it's mostly a "hey, do you wanna play something in this song?"
kind of thing.
do you prefer this way of
working to the classical work conventions?
definitely, that's why we've been playing with sigur rós for so long. this
kind of work is so much more rewarding than being session players, for
example, where you just sit down and play whatever's on the sheet and then
it's over and you go home. with sigur rós we've been able to be part of a
collective force where the music just flows naturally and there are no
limitations because you don't have to follow any rules or prefabricated
guidelines. it's all very open and cooperative with sigur rós, sometimes we
join the band to play other instruments like hammond organ or glockenspiel
in songs that don't need strings.
for how long do you intend to
continue playing with sigur rós?
we will
probably stop playing with them after this tour which ends in april. we'd
like to move on now and see what happens. after having completed this new
album, sigur rós and amina will probably start moving in different
directions, which is probably a positive thing for both groups. some of us
have been living in different countries and it's been difficult for all
eight of us to be this one whole all the time. this has been a great project
and it's been very inspirational and rewarding for us to work under another
group's name but we think now it's time to start doing things on our own
terms.
so what's next for amina?
well we've
definitely given up on being session players and playing at special
occasions like weddings. we can't help but be bored with that kind of thing
after having had this kind of creative freedom with sigur rós for so long.
we're now rather familiar with the technical aspects of making music and
we've playing around with the idea of recording an amina album this year
with not just strings but with all kinds of other instruments as well. we've
come to know each other so well musically that it'd be kind of silly to pass
up an oppurtunity to record an album together. it's probably just a matter
of time.
where does the name 'amina' come
from?
it was
originally anima, we came up with that name during a panic attack the day
before our first concert when we realised we didn't have a name for the
quartet. we were flipping through a latin dictionary and came across the
word 'anima', which means soul or spirit. it's maybe kind of pretentious but
we just thought it sounded nice. after half the quartet left and two new
players came in we switched the letters to make 'amina', mostly out of
laziness.
how did the string intro in the
new live version of von come about?
we got a
phone call from the band the day before the icelandic opera house concert
that they'd like the concert to start with a 10 minute string intro that
would lead into von. we had written down a few keywords of what we wanted it
to be like and we just improvised it at the concert. we've kept it similar
to what we improvised there but it's different every time we play it.
we've heard that the new version
of von and hafssól might be on the upcoming vaka single, is this correct?
there were
some concert recordings made of those songs during last year's tours because
the boys intended there to be a live element on the vaka single but they've
now decided to scrap that idea and use something else instead. so von and
hafssól aren't likely to be the vaka single, i'm afraid.
how did the new song 'mílanó'
come about?
jónsi was
running back and forth with a minidisc at the soundcheck before the mílanó
concert in 2001 and he asked us to play something so we improvised what is
now the foundation of mílanó. we didn't play it at that concert but jónsi
listened to the recording afterwards and really liked it and said "let's
play mílanó at the next concert" even though it wasn't a song yet, only this
small idea. after we'd been touring for so long with the same setlist, it
was very refreshing for all of us to play something that we didn't know by
heart, a breath of fresh air. we started a rule which we've been trying to
hold that we must play at least one improvised song at each concert. mílanó
has since them evolved quite a bit and has been frequenting the setlists
lately.
and now for the gossip part of
the interview. maría, you and kjartan have been together for over two years
now. what's it like working so intimately with your boyfriend?
you would
think that the relationship would be doomed with having to work together for
such long periods of time as when we tour together but it's actually worked
out very well. we work well together but inevitably there are occasionally
some strange situations you end up in. but that's just how it is.
okay now that we've got the
gossip i think that's about it. thanks for your time.
you're
welcome, it's been our pleasure.
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