Jessika Kenney / Eyvind Kang / Hildur Gudnadottir
Duo of Kenney & Kang
Hildur Gudnadottir Solo
Trio of Kenney, Kang & Gudnadottir
Jessika Kenney is a composer and vocalist working in realms traditional, experimental, and holistic. Her recordings include talismanic LP “ATRIA” on the avant-metal SIGE label, as well as “Aestuarium” (2011) and “The face of the earth” (2012) as a duo with her husband and closest collaborator Eyvind Kang, released by Ideologic Organ. In the realms of vocal and literary traditions, she studies Persian radif with Ostad Hossein Omoumi and practices sindhenan in the international Javanese gamelan scene. Her large-scale sound and video installation Anchor Zero was shown at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle in January of 2015, incorporating interactive elements in the exploration of the relationships between pulse-taking and vocalization as means towards connecting to a space or place, and the paradoxical dynamics of the perception of interior/exterior.
Eyvind Kang is a composer and violist who has released a dozen albums of original music, for example, “The Narrow Garden” (Ipecac) and “Visible Breath” (Ideologic Organ). Eyvind often performs with vocalist/composer Jessika Kenney in many contexts, including their works of austere beauty “Aetuarium” and “the Face of the Earth (Ideologic 2011/12). As a violist he has worked extensively with Laurie Anderson and Bill Frisell, as well as presented works by Christian Wolff, Giacinto Scelsi, Satyajit Ray and Hanne Darboven. He has also been a guest musician and arranger on hundreds of albums, including those by Sunn O))), Blonde Redhead, and Glass Candy.
http://www.ideologic.org/news/view/ideologic_organ_the_record_label
Hildur Guðnadóttir (1982) is an Icelandic cello player, composer and singer who has been manifesting herself at the forefront of experimental pop and contemporary music (e.g. with the band múm). In her solo works she draws out a broad spectrum of sounds from her instrument, ranging from intimate simplicity to huge soundscapes.
“Guðnadóttir takes a cello and gentle voice and, through software manipulation, scales simple phrases up to celestial heights” – The Wire: Adventures in Modern Music.
Gudnadóttir began playing cello as a child, entered the Reykjavík Music Academy and then moved on to musical studies/composition and new media at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and Universitat der Kunste in Berlin.
Hildur has released four critically acclaimed solo albums: Mount A (2006), Without Sinking (2009), Leyfðu Ljósinu (2012) and Saman (2014). Hildur was nominated as composer of the year and Without Sinking got nominated as album of the year at the Icelandic Music Awards in 2009. The same year Without Sinking was also chosen as one of the albums of the year at the Kraumur Awards. Hildur’s albums are all released on Touch.
Hildur has composed music for theatre, dance pieces and films. The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Icelandic National Theatre, Tate Modern, The British Film Institute, The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm and Gothenburg National Theatre are amongst the institutions that have commissioned new works by Hildur. She won Gríman (The Icelandic Theatre Award) in 2011, for her music for King Lear. And 2012 she was nominated for the Robert Prize (Danish Film Award) for her original score for A Hijacking. She is nominated for the Nordic Music Council Prize as composer of the year 2014.
Among others Hildur has performed live and recorded music with Skúli Sverrisson, Jóhann Jóhannsson, múm, Schneider TM, Angel, Pan Sonic, Hauschka, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Jamie Lidell, The Knife, Fever Ray and Throbbing Gristle.