Gyða Valtýsdóttir (born 5 January 1982) is an Icelandic musician and multi-instrumentalist and winner of the 2019

Nordic Council Music Prize The Nordic Council Music Prize is awarded annually by NOMUS, the Nordic Music Committee. Every two years it is awarded for a work by a living composer. In the intervening years it is awarded to a performing musician or ensemble. The Nordic ...

. She was an original member of the experimental music group

Múm Múm (stylized in lowercase) () is an Icelandic indietronica band whose music is characterized by soft vocals, electronic glitch beats and effects, and a variety of traditional and unconventional instruments. History The band was formed in ...

and has released four full-length solo albums, created music for films, installations, theater and dance.

Career

Gyða began her music career in her early teens when she co-founded the experimental music pop-group Múm in the late 1990s together with Örvar Smárason, Gunnar Tynes and her twin sister Kristín Anna. She left the band after the release of ''

Finally We Are No One ''Finally We Are No One'' is the second studio album by Icelandic band Múm. It was released on 20 May 2002 by FatCat Records. In Iceland, the Smekkleysa label released ''Loksins erum við engin'', a limited edition of ''Finally We Are No One' ...

'' (2002). In 2004 she graduated with B-Mus in instrumental studies from the

Iceland University of the Arts Iceland University of the Arts ( ) is an Icelandic institution of higher art education, located in Reykjavík, which offers the only university-level degrees in the arts in Iceland.Lisa Z. ValdimarsdottirIceland Academy of the Arts, Department of ...

where her main teacher was cellist Gunnar Kvaran. In 2004–2005 she continued studying classical music at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

and in 2010 she graduated with a double master's degree from the Musik Akademie,

Basel, Switzerland Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zurich and Geneva), with ...

where her main teachers were the cellist and composer Thomas Demenga and violist, composer and improviser Walter Fähndrich. Gyða has created music for films, installations and dance. Her long list of collaborators includes

Josephine Foster Josephine Foster is an American singer, songwriter, and musician from Colorado. She is known for her anachronistic voice and work that weaves older styles with the modern, escaping simple classification. As a teenager, Foster worked as a chur ...

Dustin O'Halloran Dustin O'Halloran (born September 8, 1971) is an American composer and pianist. Aside from releasing music as a recording artist, O'Halloran is a film and TV composer, as well as one half of ambient act A Winged Victory for the Sullen. Early li ...

Jónsi Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (; born 23 April 1975) is an Icelandic musician; he is the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. He is known for his use of a cello bow on guitar and his falsetto or count ...

(from

Sigur Rós Sigur Rós () is an Icelandic post-rock band that formed in 1994 in Reykjavík. It comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Jónsi, Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal soun ...

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper (band), Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate succe ...

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

Kjartan Sveinsson Kjartan Sveinsson (; born 2 January 1978) is an Icelandic musician who is the keyboardist for the post-rock band Sigur Rós. He joined the band in 1998. A multi-instrumentalist, he has also played such instruments as the flute, tin whistle, oboe ...

Skúli Sverrisson Skúli Sverrisson (born 23 October 1966) is an Icelandic composer and bass guitarist. He has worked with musicians Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey (guitarist), Derek Bailey, Lou Reed, Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Arto Lindsay, and composers ...

Ólöf Arnalds Ólöf Arnalds (born 4 January 1980) is an Icelandic singer-songwriter and indie musician who has been active within the Icelandic music scene since the early 2000s. She was a touring member of múm for five years from 2003 before launching he ...

Colin Stetson Colin Stetson (born March 3, 1975) is an American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer based in Montreal. He is best known as a regular collaborator of the indie rock acts Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Bell Orchestre, and Ex Eye. In addition to sa ...

, Úlfur Hansson, Ben Frost,

Shahzad Ismaily Shahzad Ismaily (born 20 June 1972 in Pennsylvania) is an American multi-instrumentalist, known mainly as a bass guitar player, and record producer. He is a member of Marc Ribot's trio Ceramic Dog since its formation in 2006. He also plays with S ...

, , Winged Victory for the Sullen,

Aaron Dessner Aaron Brooking Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American musician. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band The National (band), the National, with whom he has recorded nine studio albums; a co-founder of the indie rock duo Big ...

Bryce Dessner Bryce David Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, and a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother, Aaron is also a member of the group. Together, they write the music in collabo ...

(from The National), visual-artist Ragnar Kjartansson and film director

Guy Maddin Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, film editor and installation artist. He is known for his fascination with lost Silent film, Silent-era films and for incorporating their aestheti ...

to name but few. Gyða's first solo album, ''Epicycle'', was released worldwide in 2017, winning Album of the Year at the

Iceland Music Awards The Icelandic Music Awards () are the official annual music awards given in Iceland to commemorate the musical achievements of the year. The award was established in 1993 with an annual rock award given by the Félag íslenskra hljómlistarmanna ...

and Kraumur Music Award. The album is a collection of pieces by the likes of

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

and

Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

as well as more experimental composers like

Harry Partch Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...

and

George Crumb George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical ...

. Collaborators on the album are Shahzad Ismaily, Hilmar Jensson,

Michael York Michael York (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television, and stage actor. After performing on stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Romeo ...

, Julian Sartorius and Danny Tunick. Gyða's first album comprising her original compositions, ''Evolution'', was released in fall 2018 on figureight records, co-produced by

Alex Somers Alex Somers (born March 7, 1984) is an American visual artist and musician from Baltimore, Maryland, who attended Berklee College of Music and Listaháskóli Íslands. Somers lives and works in Los Angeles. Previously he ran a recording studio ...

. Other collaborators on the album are Shahzad Ismaily, Albert Finnbogason, Aaron Roche, Julian Sartorius and Úlfur Hansson. The album was nominated for the Nordic Music Prize in 2019 and chosen the album of the year 2018 in the open category at the Iceland Music Prize. In 2020 she will release her next album ''Epicycle II'' with newly commissioned pieces written for Gyða by Icelandic musicians Skúli Sverrisson, Ólöf Arnalds, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir,

, Úlfur Hansson, Jónsi, Daníel Bjarnason and Anna Thorvaldsdottir. In 2019 Gyda received the prestigious Nordic Council Music Price for her music and performance, the jury calling her distinct vocals and instrumental inventiveness ”highly unique & captivating”.

In popular culture

Along with her twin sister, Gyða appeared on the cover of the

Belle and Sebastian Belle and Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band formed in Glasgow in 1996. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the band has released twelve studio albums. They are often compared with acts such as the Smiths and Nick Drake. The band took their name from ...

album '' Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant''.

Discography

Solo albums

* 2013 ''Serenade Vapour'' 7” * 2016 ''Epicycle'' * 2018 ''Evolution'' * 2018 ''MIKHEL'' (soundtrack) * 2020 ''Epicycle II'' * 2021 ''Ox''

Albums with múm

* 1999 '' Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK'' * 1999 Náttúruóperan. Music for a play by Andri Snær Magnason * 1999 Flugmaður. Music with poetry by Andri Snær Magnason * 2001 ''Blái hnötturinn'' (for theater) * 2002 ''

'' * 2006 ''The Peel Session'' * 2012 '' Smilewound''

Also appears on

* 2004 '' In A Safe Place'' by The Album Leaf * 2007 '' Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy'' by múm * 2009 ''Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know'' by múm * 2012 ''Feathermagnetik'' by Kira Kira * 2013 ''Let My Hands Be Your Guide'' by Chantal Acda * 2013 ''I'm A Dreamer'' by Josephine Foster * 2014 ''My Favorite Faded Fantasy'' by Damien Rice * 2015 ''Thinking Like a Mountain'' by Merz * 2016 ''Sorrow'' by Colin Stetson * 2016 ''No More Lamps in the Morning'' by Josephine Foster * 2017 ''Ósómaljóð (Megas syngur Ósómaljóð Þorvaldar Þorsteinssonar)''. * 2017 '' Arborecence'' by Úlfur Hansson * 2018 ''Alchemy & Friends'' by Kira Kira * 2018 ''Faithful Fairy Harmony'' by Josephine Foster * 2019 ''I Must be the Devil'' by Kristín Anna

Music for films

* 2018 ''MIHKEL'' by Ari Alexsander Ergis * 2018 Due piccoli italiani (Two Little Italians) by Paolo Sassanelli * 2019 Síðasta haustið (Last Autumn) by Yrsa Roca Fannberg

References

External links

Official webpage
{{Authority control 1982 births Gyda Valtýsdóttir Icelandic women classical composers Gyda Valtýsdóttir Gyda Valtysdottir Living people Gyda Valtýsdóttir Gyda Valtýsdóttir Twin musicians