Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar)

I took a trip last week and took my chances in getting to a ferry that would shuttle me and two visiting friends to the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland. We arrived just in the nick of time. It was totally worth it, and completely breathtaking!

A short ferry ride brings you from the south coast of Iceland to the big island of Heimaey, in the chain of the Westman Islands, or Vestmannaeyjar. I say a short ride, but that's if the weather is good, if there's not too much silt in the bay from shifting sands, and if the ferry is leaving from Herjolfur. Otherwise it could take you 2.5 hours. Luckily it was one of the most beautiful days I've seen in the whole time I've been here. Less than a half hour later we arrived in our seemingly exotic location. My friends and I both exclaiming how tropical the cliffs looked. But there are also sheep grazing on the tops of those precarious peaks!

The view from our room at the guesthouse had a mountain top on one side and two volcano cones on the other. Wild.

We took a walk around town, which has a sizeable 4000 people on it, including shops, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, everything a city needs. It would probably be more inhabitants were it not for the remote-ness of the place, previous volcano that pushed a lot of people away, and the relative closeness to Reykjavík, where all the kids are likely to escape. We saw the most stunning location for a soccer field ever- how distracting to play here with such landscape in the background! Not that I could ever EVER attempt sports, but if I did, I would blame all my bad plays on the scenery.

We then hiked up the main volcano! It was one of the strangest experiences I've had. The 'path' was little more than a slightly flattened area of lava stones. I think the volcano had cooled since a few years ago (when you could still feel the heat radiating) but I didn't want to go all the way to the tip for some unrealistic fear that the soil might be thin and I fall down into a magma-filled portal to hell (obviously). And there was high wind and blowing dust. That's a better excuse. It looked like Mars up there!

Luckily the last eruption was in 1979...though it was quite dramatic. The island gained about 25% more landmass from the volcano, and created a tranquil bay for boats, and fortunately everyone was evacuated safely and not a single loss of life. It's still very easy to see the new volcanic area versus the old farmland areas.

But even in the most inhospitable-looking locations, sometimes there's a little life.


And, after the hike down the volcano, and several glasses of water later (all the volcanic dust makes one thirsty!), it was time to cue the beautiful sunset.

Summer arrives in Reykjavík

After much anticipation, it seems that summer has finally arrived in Iceland! It's a shame that it was so dreary when my friends were recently visiting- it even snowed on the first of May. But I suppose that's the chances you take with weather! And this lucky streak of warmth and sunshine may be fleeting, but I'm still going to run outside and play in it. Everyone else has the same idea!

The atmosphere in the city totally changed. It feels like a different country. Tables and chairs were pulled out from storage and now the streets are lined with coffee-drinkers and diners.

The trees have the first tiny leaves popping out, and the grass is getting very green again too! Though it will still be some time before the countryside and colder areas of the country see the green.

And Esja looks incredibly clear and bright without fog or rain getting in the way.

The light here is now really intense and direct, and long-lasting. I have to use both sets of my blinds to sleep, as it gets quite bright really early in the morning. Though it's not quite the 24-hour brightness yet, which should arrive in a few weeks, it was still quite pretty and sunset-like last night after 11pm!

Several people i know got sunburned from being outside lounging too long- something I thought would never happen in this nordic country. But that sun is a sneaky guy. Welcome back, vitamin D, good to have you in my life again! Just don't get too hot, Iceland, 'cause I sure didn't come here to get all sweaty.

Music projects, a list

Sometimes it seems like I don't do a lot of 'work'. I spend a lot of time here thinking, or reading, or chatting with people, or listening to concerts. But then I look back on the last 9 months and realize that I've done quite a lot of things! Here is a list of random projects I've been working on, because I love lists. And it doesn't even count the random sweater I'm trying to make, the collages I've cut and pasted together, and the fish-skin creations that I've constructed for sale at Mattress Factory. It really does help me put my Fulbright time into perspective; I don't know how much I'd be able to accomplish, or learn about, should I have had a full-time additional job.

11 potential songs/works for a new album
2 electronic landscape sound collages
3 choir works, 1 recorded already, 1 to be recorded and sung in Grindavík in June
1 piano solo
1 organ solo
performance of outdoor choral work with 6 singers, soundtracks, and performance artist collaboration
5 short concerts of my works
1 piece on music festival program
1 piece performed at an artist's salon evening
1 piano lounge gig
4 choir concerts at Neskirkja
singing at several masses and confirmations
3 performances of Beethoven 9 in choir for opening of Harpa
1 organ assistant gig

And still there are two months to go! I have some more recordings to finish, a CD to create (should all go well), and I'm always writing something, so I'm sure I'll be plenty busy for the summer as well, meeting random people and stockpiling fun experiences. But I'm also leaving some time in there to catch up on some sun-soaking. Gotta stock up before next winter!

Jökulsárlón in Sunshine

I had seen the glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón twice before, but both times were either cold, windy, rainy, foggy or a pick-2-or-more combo platter of bad weather. But this time it was miraculously springtime warm, sunny, windless, and the clouds were amazing! I saw things around the lagoon I'd never seen before. Hello, mountains! Why I never even knew you were there. So nice to see your glacial features in such beautiful dreamy light!


Even more strange is that I was the only car seeing this sight tonight- during the day the parking lot can be lined with buses and vans, but somehow nobody was visiting at this time of the evening. What a nice memory to have to ourselves.

Here's a panorama, should you want to click and enlarge for fuller effect. I still use my trusty old 2004 3 megapixel camera, but it still seems to captures the moment just fine.

Harpa Inside-Out

Three concerts for the grand opening previews of Harpa Concert Hall & Conference Center are completed. And I didn't fall off of the risers! Though I was precariously perched high on the topmost ledge, singing in a giant choir for Beethoven 9. The hall is beautiful, the sound rich. I don't think there's really a bad seat in the house, at least sound wise! This picture was my first rehearsal with the orchestra, before I was moved to dead-center (and then was too intent on singing to remember to bring a camera).

I took a couple pictures from inside the lobby so you can see what Iceland will have to offer many a visitor in the upcoming years. The ceiling is covered in mirrored panels, with two layers of windows forming crystal-like facets on the outer wall. It's a hexagon-lover's paradise. The main staircase seems to come from an invisible point on the horizon and then open up like a wedge; it's a really cool optical illusion.


Some parts, even the day before, looked very much under construction:

But then at the last second, beautiful things appeared, like fountains outside, pavement, bridges, a store, furniture, shiny floors and walls. It was pretty incredible the transformation.



On the way out of the building after the final concert, I was just in time to catch an incredible sunset on the horizon. It seemed like luck to catch the light through these panes of glass but it was totally intentional, and brilliant, on the part of the artist and architects who designed the building's layout! Harpa looks so different in various times of day and light, and will certainly look different throughout the year as the sun changes angle dramatically. It will soon be the kind of place that stops people dead in their tracks to go oooo and aaah. I think even more fancy technical work is planned for the facade and interior of the building, to be completed in the months to come.



A grand opening weekend of celebrations is planned for Harpa, and you can check out the schedule and more information at harpa.is.

Unexplored sights on the Golden Circle

There is much to see on the Golden Circle trip, as I've written about in the past. But as someone who's lived here for a while, I've taken the trip a few times and it's nice to include new sights each time, keep things fresh. I had some friends from home visit this past week and we took a few detours that I had not seen before!

This cave, or series of caves, at Laugarvatnshellar, were inhabited by a family until 1974!! I couldn't believe it but then I saw that their cave-home had a wood frontispiece and a door, and looked like it could have been made slightly homey inside. Still, it's a small cave. Apparently the family would make goodies to sell to visiting hikers and tourists. Now it just shelters sheep and helps with farming.

I had never been down to the edge of Gullfoss yet! The times I've been there it was either with a tour group (no time), or in the winter (too much ice). But this time it was dry, and VERY dramatic. I don't think I've ever felt this close to a roaring waterfall, like I could get sucked over the edge!


We drove out closer to Landmannalaugur, closer to the highlands, than I'd ever been. The road got a little rough but it was worth it- there are so many geological features I'd never seen the likes of yet. The area on top of this mountain was a flat, barren floodplain. There was a mysterious monolithic dam up here, and a lock, that was part of a power plant. When you crossed a bridge over this crazy, eerily silent and lifeless floodplain of black stones, you could see a sign that says 'Caution- area may flood rapidly and unexpectedly, with strong currents.' Not a place to wander off of the main road.

On the bottom of this mountain, however, was a recreated Icelandic homestead, based on the first archaeological site that was explored by researchers. It was awfully picturesque, but sadly the doors were locked. There was a great sign outside of this monument too, though.


The trip this day was horribly windy and rainy at times, but on the way back home, a burning red sunset made it all better. It looked like the mountains were on fire all Lord of the Rings-style. Sauron's territory, perhaps? Keeping watch over the lava fields.

Harpa Concert Hall

I'm honored to be singing as part of the Choir for Beethoven 9 in the grand opening concerts of Harpa, the national concert hall of Iceland. I even think I may be the only non-native person in the choir to be singing, so I feel extra special (and also slightly nervous that I might sneeze on national television or something).

I had a sneak peak at the current state of the building, as the three opening concerts begin tomorrow, but there is much to do. Still, the building is already very impressive, and I think it will be a great landmark in the city's architecture.

The building is really curious, it looks quite different from all sides. As it's based on Icelandic rock forms, and the curtain-like waves of the Northern Lights, one would imagine that there's a lot of complex geometry involved. The windows of the building have been the cause of millions of kronur of stress and frustration, but it's gonna be amazing when the construction is completed.

Here and there are colored mirror-like windows, which look really transparent from the inside but from the outside also reflect passing cars-- I don't know if this was intended but the moving reflections look like gemstones turning, their facets sparkling.

On the back side of the building are windows in even more colors- the 'green room' area had green, yellow, and orange windows.


Inside the concert hall is bathed in a beautiful red wood (sometimes crappily installed, but that will be invisible soon) and state-of-the-art lighting and acoustics. The choir for Beethoven 9 never sounded better. There's a great resonance without it being boomy or complicated. I could finally hear myself sing!

And the view of Esja in the distance, and the harbor, is simply amazing. I'd come to concerts here just to watch the midnight sun from the top of the staircases here. You'll have to scope that view out for yourself!

More pictures to come after the opening, as we are obligated to not reveal too much until the concerts have begun.

West Fjords, Part 2

Phwew! We made it out of that tunnel alive. Thank goodness. Now we just have to worry about avalanches in Flateyri. Well, not really. This area had some serious avalanches in 1995, which caused the deaths of scores of people in several towns, so the area has been heavily protected with avalanche walls and relocation of homes. There's just not much place for those homes to go, being nestled on these little spits between a mountain and the fjord!

Flateyri is a really cool place for a population of only 200 people. There's one restaurant-slash-bar-slash-community hangout, and in the summer there is kayaking, hiking, and lots of historical-iceland fun facts to read about. If you're looking for a great, reasonable apartment to rent short-term, check this out, where we stayed! But for late-april, it's a quiet town in the middle of nowhere. I took a long walk around town, recorded some water noises, and went up to the top of the avalanche wall, which now has a lookout point on it and a playset built inside it. A little creepy and slightly perilous, but a little exhilarating too.

Nicole and I took some shots for my upcoming album, hoping we could get a cover shot for it. I haven't decided on one particular image yet, but I have a couple great non-serious outtake pictures in the wind. It got pretty stormy in the fjord that night, which I can't say wasn't all that inappropriate for the album, being written in many a crazy location throughout Iceland.

We went to check out Ísafjörður again and see the rock festival 'Aldrei Fór Ég Sudur', or 'Never Went I South'. It's a free music festival! (If you can get there.) It was cool, and I love the spirit of everyone just coming into this tiny town, and sharing the good music with their neighbors, no matter what the weather. This band is Soley, before the place filled to the brim with music fans.

There was also this small art festival going on and I saw some graffiti-based work that was a little dated, but also some hilarious comics and cool paintings. I went to buy a teeshirt as my weekend's souvenir, but didn't have cash on me, only debit card. But the worker gave the teeshirt to me for free! Thanks, dude, whoever you are. Now I can say, 'I went to Ísafjörður and all I got was this awesome, totally not-lousy free tee-shirt!'


Winding back along the coast toward Reyjavík, we passed a small town with a geothermal area that feeds a random pool, hotel/apartment, and a couple small buildings. I took a picture of a quintessential Icelandic moment here. A baby, inside a baby carriage, taking a nap while its mother is inside the building, keeping an eye out but also probably having a coffee. Carriage next to a grill. Grill next to a geothermal steam vent in the ground that just popped up unexpectedly, dangerously hot and steaming, but covered for 'safety' by some big rocks. Wind blowing fiercely outside. Life as usual for the West Fjords.

West Fjords, Part 1

I went on a three-night trip to the West Fjords of Iceland, and it was indeed full of fjords! But also a lot of other majestic, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes curious things. I thought I'd share some stories and photos about it.

We drove up to the West Fjords thinking that we'd take a drive all along the coast, up from the south section, cut through the west side and see the big waterfall there, and then over to Ísafjörður on the north, with the excuse of having the 'Aldrei fór ég Suður' rock festival to see. Then we'd head back eastward, over the north part of the fjords and back again. It didn't quite work out that way though.

On the way the road was rough going. Unpaved roads, lots of potholes, some intense climbs through the mountains! But some unbelieveable views, too. Rows of waterfalls, calm fjords with blue mountains covered in snow. Then other times, purple-y plants and red rocks, changing to snow-covered deserts that you couldn't even tell the difference between snow and sky. I can see how people might need this antarctic-looking emergency hut.

We reached the cut-through pass only to find that the road that had been open a few days prior was now closed to snow, and there is no other road that will connect between the two parts of the fjords, you have to go all the way around. So with some last-minute phone calls, we found a place to sleep for the night a change of plans.

Thankfully, this was kind of a fun and funny experience! The owner of the farm/guesthouse we stayed at was talking on the phone with us while herding some sheep around. The whole family was visiting, so we shared the space with some cute rugrats. The ocean was steps away, and I haven't had an oceanfront bedroom view like this in a long time. The milk offered to us was straight from the cows on the property.

The next morning we were not defeated so we went back along the rocky coast to where we could cross, and then on to the northern part of the fjord roads. We stopped in Holmavík for food, but while there we were lucky to find the Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery open!

This was a peculiar place indeed. Iceland has actually had a long history with witchcraft, but all the witches accused were men (except for one woman). The owner of the museum was a quirky guy who gave us free coffee, and I had tea made from Icelandic moss (tastes better than it sounds).

We saw the exhibits including the 'necropants', a replica of what would have been a a real skin of a human body that a sorcerer would step into, feet and legs and genitals and all, and presumably receive special powers and abundant wealth. I won't include an image here, it's not great for the kids. We also saw runes, a stone used for Viking beheadings, and read a lot of great facts about strange rituals of olde times. And then it was so nice outside that we got to sit out on a stone table and eat a picnic lunch! I made a chow-down panorama.

The weather report called for gross rain and wind (we'll get that later, don't worry), but today it was warm and sunny, and made for a quick and much more pleasant drive. This side of the fjords has the biggest 'town' on it, Ísafjörður, with 2500 people, so the roads are quite well-kept. Still dangerously close to plunging into the ocean, or be caught in a rock slide on the other side, but still very well-maintained.

We arrived in Ísafjörður, which indeed feels like a booming metropolis after driving for several hours past hardly a building or two along the way. There's a grocery store! In fact, there's more than one! There's a swimming pool and museum, library, and a small airport. The mountains of the fjord are so close you could almost taste the snow on their caps...or something delightful like that.

I'll leave this post at about the half-way point, en route to our sleeping place for the next two nights in Flateyri, a small town near Ísafjörður. Which to get to you have to drive through a one-lane tunnel, about 4km long. But, here's the dramatic catch: the tunnel is not one-way. You have to pull off to the side in strategically-marked pull-off points to let the other direction pass you. One of the strangest and most unusual experiences ever: driving down a dark, dripping, seemingly endless one-lane tunnel through a mountain and having a car come straight toward you. We stopped our car and waited for another to drive by in the other direction, and I recorded the eerie buildup of sound of the passing vehicle.

Even weirder is that the tunnel splits in two different directions, right in the middle of the tunnel. Just a simple turn is all it takes, no lane divider, no extra stoplights, still one-car wide, just a sign illuminated in the dark saying: turn right for Suðereyri.

100 Composers Under 40

NPR put out a list of public-recommended '100 Composers Under 40', and once again, the list reminded me just how strongly I desire to be considered among this community of people, and my uncertainty about my position in it.

I've been working on many creative projects, and sometimes I feel like I'm doing the right things and that I work with the resources available to me. Then sometimes I feel like an elusive 'fame' or 'recognition' or the lovely 'ability to pay the rent' is just beyond my grasp. And as to how people reach this upper echelon of supporters or recognition, this is elusive as well, and may be even somewhat of a mystery to the composers themselves.

Fame and fortune in a 'classical composer' sense is a tricky subject. There's rarely much money involved for most projects until you get bigger commissions or grants. Usually very little PR, and few star-studded red-carpet events. But there is a certain level of flexibility, of name recognition, that one can have, knowing that somewhere, people have heard of you (or ideally, have heard, and/or enjoyed) your music, and know who you are. Rue the day that an unknown 'fan' comes up to me and says, 'You're Nathan Hall, I love your work!', because you will probably get an unexpected hug, and then your picture will be taken, and then the picture will mailed to my parents with a note that says 'Hey mom! A stranger knows who I am!'.

In Iceland, I feel ever closer to being a part of the 'right' circle of people, who do similar things as me. While in Iceland, I have had the pleasure of meeting, five of the musicians on this NPR list! And hearing works by one other as well. Iceland seems to have an unusually high number of composers in the mix; two of them are in Sigur Rós and four of them are involved with a great music studio/label/company/think tank called Bedroom Community. I am completely am on the Nico Muhly/Daníel Bjarnasson/Kjartan Sveinsson cheer squad, or I don't think I'd be on this Fulbright in this wacky place called Reykjavík. I wanted to see why Iceland nurtures this kind (I'd like to think 'my' kind) of creativity. But usually I end up as the participant, the audience member, while others get the limelight. I wasn't born here, I don't speak fluently, and I haven't known anyone here longer than 8 months. Some events here have made me feel like I'm in fifth grade again, where I wasn't allowed to talk to the cool kids because I wasn't dressed appropriately or something (in this case, it was wearing dress shirts, suspenders, and ties, just like their dads. The 90's were weird like that).

It seems that half of the list lives in New York City. I've probably met five additional people on the list, all in NYC. And then one or two others I've met across the States. But I'm a little sad that New York still is THE place to make your big break. I thought the world was a little flatter by now. I love New York, but there are so many other amazing places for culture and landscape and ideas in the world!


Okay. Now I took a day away from this post and I've come back with a positive spin, rather than me just throwing a little pity party for myself.

1. I can hope that the light at the end of the tunnel is fast-approaching. I'm still creating interesting works and continuing to work, no matter where I am or for what media. Just keeping on doing work is the most important thing.

2. Some of these people on the list, well most of them, have such different life experiences than me. I can't expect to model my life after someone whose childhood, upbringing, education, location(s), was so different than mine.

3. This list was pared down from over 800 names! There are probably limitless talents out there that didn't make the cut either. Sometimes I wish the general listening public was more interested in breadth of knowledge, but it's hard in this keyword/tagging/twittery world to have good name recall like that. Even I find myself just flipping through to names of people I recognize, rather than checking out the people I don't know. This I should change!

4. There's no use being jealous of other people's fame when they're people you either really admire. Owen Pallett, I've never met you, I'd love to though, you were about 10 feet away from me at the Warhol Museum once in Pittsburgh but you had a cold and I didn't want your germs, sorry. But girl, you work so hard and tour yourself crazy, I could never play show after show like that. And so many concerts are probably for little to no money. I wish I had 10% of the cool opportunities you have, though; talent seems to flow forth from you! While still being humble and funny and extremely good-looking, too.

5. Daníel Bjarnasson, on this list in fact, told me that most of his big projects have all happened in his last five years. As he and many of these composers are a couple years older than me, I'm going to think that my big projects may be just beginning, that at 28 I'm still on the 'young' end of 'young(ish) composers', especially by classical music's standards. I think the more colleagues I meet and chat with, the more I'm strangely reassured that I've got a good thing going, and I'ma keep doin' it.

Meet Egg Cup and Timer

Two new friends! Thanks to MG and RB in Ireland, I am now acquainted with the world of soft-boiled eggs in egg cups. And thanks to LC, I now know about the English way of chopping up toast into strips and dipping into those the egg like a little sponge. So many ways to enjoy those chicken embryos.

I also found a beautifully-designed egg timer at Tiger, a store in Reykjavík which I believe is Norwegian, but is basically about the cheapest thing around for cool small items. The sand timer is exactly three minutes, just long enough for the soft-boiled egg. I love the lucite square that the hourglass is trapped inside of, it seems very modern and fancy but less than $3 USD. That is a nice little gift for myself.

I've admittedly had so many eggs at various times of the day that it's no longer a breakfast item...if soft-boiled eggs were less messy and easier to carry around, I might carry my egg cup with me on my travels! But alas, that would just make me look like a lunatic, eating a runny egg and toast outside in the middle of a park or something, so Egg Cup and Timer can patiently wait at home for my return.


Also, speaking of eggs, my mom sent me the most amazing Easter package in the mail- a giant 'egg' that she collaged herself (I think covering a balloon, and then letting it dry, before popping the balloon) and filled full of candy and healthy goodies. The top is even 'cracked' like an egg, and the 'shell' is made of maps of Iceland, cut into strips. Mamma Midnight is a genius! I put it on a candleholder here so it won't wobble around--you don't want this egg to crack open at the wrong time either.

The Pink Rose

I collaborated with a performance artist friend of mine, Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, on a new work in Hólavallagarður cemetery in Reykjavík. It was also a piece that, from its inception months ago, almost did a complete turn around from its original idea, changed to something else entirely, almost got canceled, and then surprisingly was reborn close to the original concept! It forced me (in a good way) to be very flexible about form and organization, and try things that I haven't done before.

Several colleagues from my choir at Neskirkja helped me in walking around the cemetery with bells, singing fragments of a song I wrote for them; we came back together and sang the song as a group, and also shared some stories and special moments. It was quite a magical effect; the evening sun even poked through the clouds and onto the trees a couple times. The weather forecast suggested it might snow, but it held off for the evening.

This was my first piece with a more open form for the musicians as they walk around- I had written a piece for Brass Quintet with the players marching a short way, but their music was all written out ahead of time. This piece created more of a mood, an atmosphere. I heard lullabies being sung, folk songs, people chatting intimately, and calling out of the names of people in the graves and on the stones. It was a bit of a thank-you work to the cemetery, as I've walked through it so many times now and find it quite inspiring. And it was a bit like a call to springtime- let's hurry up, Reykjavík, I'm ready for some warmer sun!

This was also the first time I've composed pre-recorded music for the performance, and had multiple CD players playing the different tracks facing different directions. The wind would carry sound snippets through the cemetery, and you'd hear some melodies colliding, and here and there some bell-chimes, and birds in the trees.

Ásdís looked pretty fabulous as well.


Even my microphone got a new outfit. It now has a fuzzy Russian hat to wear to protect it from some the breezes.

Some More Random Observations about Iceland

Icelandic Lutheran Confirmations are huge events. Bigger than a sweet 16 party, the child might even get an iphone or something ridiculous as gifts. It is also an occasion for the teenage girls to wear the tallest high heel or wedge shoes they can find.

Easter is a much bigger holiday here than in the US. There are free gift-wrapping tables set up at the mall! And rows and rows of giant chocolate eggs at the grocery stores.

It is very difficult to find dried cranberries here. I thought black beans were tough, but now I've discovered two stores with them. But cranberries, not so much. Lots and lots of dried figs, raisins, and prunes, though.

Even by this time in April, I've noticed the ever-widening daylight. It's bright and sunny by 8am, and still quite light after 9pm. It's only getting more and more bright every day.

There was a parade of musicians the other day when the Symphony Orchestra moved into their new concert hall, Harpa. I'm sad to have missed it! But the new hall looks exquisite.


The Icelandic word for tuxedo is 'smoking'. But I don't know what the word for 'smoking jacket' is. Maybe 'tuxedó.' The Icelandic word for 'again' is 'aftur' but the word for 'after' is 'eftir', and I keep getting them confused. I see an 'a' and I think 'After', the spelling is much closer, but this is not right. It will have to be one of those devices like 'the correct answer is the opposite of what you think it is!' brain tricks that one tells oneself when learning language.