We bid farewell to our old friend Jóhann Jóhannsson in disbelief. When words fail there is music.
We were extremely sad to hear about the passing of Holger Czukay earlier this week and, according to an announcement from CAN – Spoon Records, that U-She, his wife, had passed away only weeks before. We came in contact with Holger in the late 90s proposing a collaboration. It was a long shot, obviously, but he responded positively, suggesting he would cross the Atlantic on an Icelandic pony. While collaboration never came to fruition, we corresponded sporadically over the years. Holger was always warm and generous and we learnt, among other things, how he had loved Icelandic children’s author Jon Sveinsson, or Nonni, when he was little. He also mentioned a certain Sveinsson he had met while they studied with Stockhausen in 1964. This can’t have been anyone other than Icelandic composer Atli Heimir Sveinsson. When Reptilicus played in Bonn in early 1998, Holger and U-She invited us over for tea in nearby Cologne. We ended up spending the whole night together, going out for dinner and back to their home-studio, listening to stories and talking music and, generally, just being inspired. In the early hours of the morning, they drove us back to Bonn in an old Mercedes. A night we will never forget.
Extreme Chill festival – Thursday 6th of July – Mengi
20.30 – 21.10 – Jónas Sen (IS)
21.20 – 22.00 – Stereo Hypnosis & Futuregrapher (IS)
22.10 – 22.45 – Reptilicus (IS)
Remembering Pauline Oliveros. We were fortunate and honoured to be in contact with her when we prepared Music for Tectonics, which included, with her kind permission, recordings we made of her work at the Tectonics festival in Reykjavik in 2013. Thank you for the music and for the listening.
We will perform as part of the Extreme Chill Showcase at the Iceland Airwaves Festival in Kaldalón, Harpa Concert Hall, November 4th.
We’re excited to take part in Extreme Chill this summer with some of our favorites among European and Icelandic electronic musicians: Hans Joachim Roedelius, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Stereo Hypnosis, Þóranna Björnsdóttir, and Jón Ólafsson & Futuregrapher. The festival will take place at Vík í Mýrdal by the south coast of Iceland, 2-3rd of July. For more information, visit extremechill.org. For scenes from Vík, watch the teaser trailer:
We’re grateful to Elísabet Indra and Mengi for organising a small celebration of Music for Tectonics. It was a pleasant evening of music, drinks and Q and A on the CD and its background, Reptilicus’ history and up coming projects with a few chips from our sonic workshop scattered around. Again thanks to Mengi and all who showed up.
New release on EMF, Electronic Music Foundation. Graphic design by award winning Michael Robert Wrycraft – with special thanks to William Blakeney, Joel Chadabe and Praveer Baijal. The CD is the result of Reptilicus’ participation in the Tectonics festival in Reykjavik, organised by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and curated by conductor Ilan Volkov. Reptilicus did various recordings of performances, rehearsals and the environment at the festival which became the basis of their own performance. In the wake of Tectonics, Reptilicus put new pieces together, manipulating and adding to the raw material collected. Among the material used (with permisson) are recordings of the works of Christian Wolff and Pauline Oliveros.
Mail order: 12 Tónar and Ant-Zen.
In Reykjavík, the CD is available at the following stores: 12 Tónar on Skólavörðustígur; Bóksala Stúdenta on Háskólatorg; Lucky Records on Rauðarárstígur; Smekkleysa on Laugavegur; and Mengi on Óðinsgata.