Valgeir Sigurðsson


Valgeir Sigurðsson is an Icelandic record producer, mixer, composer, audio engineer and musician.

Biography

Coming from a musical background, Valgeir's fascination with recording technology led to a job in a small recording studio at the age of 16. He plays keyboards, bass, percussion, electronics/programming and studied classical guitar, graduating with a Tonmeister degree from London's SAE Institute. In 1998 Valgeir was hired by fellow countrywoman Björk as engineer and programmer on the soundtrack for Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. A song from the film, I've Seen It All was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to Bob Dylan's Things Have Changed. Valgeir created the distinctive train-rhythm that runs through the song. His working relationship with Björk continued beyond the film project and was consistent from early 1998 until 2006, during which time Valgeir was one of her main studio collaborators.
Valgeir is the founder of Greenhouse Studios, Iceland's top recording facility established in 1997, where in addition to Björk, he has collaborated with artists such as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Feist, Damon Albarn, Camille, CocoRosie, Ben Frost, Sam Amidon, múm, Hilary Hahn & Hauschka, Brian Eno, Sigur Rós, Emel Mathlouthi, and many others. In 2005 he founded the Bedroom Community record label launching the recording career of Nico Muhly and producing and releasing albums by Ben Frost and Sam Amidon.
He has composed music for TV, film and theatre and his debut solo album Ekvílibríum was released by Bedroom Community in 2007, followed by a release of his soundtrack for Dreamland in 2009. The score of Dreamland was performed live in 2011 by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2012, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov, in 2013. His first conventional classical commission, Nebraska Quartet was premiered by the Chiara String Quartet at the Lincoln Center during NYC's Ecstatic Music Festival in 2011. Valgeir's third LP Architecture of Loss was released in September 2012 to critical acclaim. Ghosts, for chamber ensemble, was the result of a commission the Crash Ensemble, and launched in Dublin in November 2013. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Mickelthwate premiered Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Five, for orchestra and electronics, as part of its annual New Music Festival in January 2014.

Selected works

Stage works

  • 2009 Green Aria,, for chamber orchestra and electronics
  • 2012 Architecture of Loss, ballet for chamber ensemble of 3 players and electronics
  • 2014 Wide Slumber for lepidopterists, music-theatre piece for 3 singers, 4 musicians and electronics
  • 2018 Woman Undone, music-theatre work for five singers/instrumentalists

    Orchestral

  • 2011 Dreamland, for large orchestra and electronics
  • 2013 Dreamland, for chamber orchestra and optional electronics
  • 2013 Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Five, for orchestra and electronics
  • 2014 No Nights Dark Enough, for chamber orchestra and electronics

    Ensemble

  • 2011 Past Tundra, for chamber ensemble of 9 players with electronics
  • 2011 Nebraska, for string quartet
  • 2012 Architecture of Loss, ballet for chamber ensemble of 3 players and electronics
  • 2013 Ghosts, for chamber ensemble of 10 players with electronics
  • 2014 The Crumbling, for chamber ensemble of 6 players
  • 2014 Raindamage, for string trio and electronics
  • 2014 Dissonance, for viola da gamba and electronics
  • 2015 Veej, for chamber ensemble of 18 players
  • 2015 For Love of Her , for voice, chamber ensemble of 10 players and electronics
  • 2018 Remnant, for viola and electronics
  • 2018 Dust, for violin and electronics

    Electronics Only

  • 2016 Antigravity, electronic track

    Discography

Solo

  • 2007 Ekvílibríum
  • 2010 Draumalandið
  • 2012 Architecture of Loss
  • 2017 ''Dissonance''

    Production

Film and TV

Other

  • 2009 Green Aria, composed by Valgeir Sigurðsson and Nico Muhly for Scent Opera, Guggenheim Museum, NYC