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Bára Gísladóttir

  • CD/Digital releases

    Bára Gísladóttir – Orchestral Works; Growl Power

    by 5:4 September 3, 2024 • 15:52
    September 3, 2024 • 15:52

    Portrait albums can be a double-edged sword. They’re obviously a great opportunity to present a showcase of someone’s work. Hardly surprising, then, that for many composers, securing that first album devoted to their music is regarded as an important, even vital step on the path toward something that might approximate …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    viibra – viibra

    by 5:4 June 19, 2024 • 06:00
    June 19, 2024 • 06:00

    Anyone familiar with Björk’s album Utopia – my Best Album of 2017 – will be aware of the ensemble of flutes that features prominently in most of its tracks. Seven of those flautists, Áshildur Haraldsdóttir, Berglind María Tómasdóttir, Björg Brjánsdóttir, Dagný Marinósdóttir, Sólveig Magnúsdóttir, Steinunn Vala Pálsdóttir and Þuríður Jónsdóttir, …

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  • Best of the Year

    Mixtape #68 : Best Albums of 2023

    by 5:4 January 1, 2024 • 06:00
    January 1, 2024 • 06:00

    A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! i want to begin 2024 by saying a huge thank you to all of you who have supported 5:4 during the last 12 months, most of all to my fantastic collection of Patrons. If you weren’t already aware, 5:4 is a literal …

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  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 December 31, 2023 • 00:00
    December 31, 2023 • 00:00

    Picking up where we left off, here’s the best of the best of this year’s most outstanding albums. If you haven’t already, do.

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Iceland Symphony Orchestra – Atmospheriques Vol. I

    by 5:4 September 9, 2023 • 06:00
    September 9, 2023 • 06:00

    Two years have passed since the Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s previous series of albums, Recurrence, Concurrence, Occurrence, and their latest release, Atmospheriques Vol. I, is the start of a new series. As before, the orchestra is conducted by Daníel Bjarnasson, and the emphasis is again on Icelandic composers, though here they’re …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Alvin Lucier – Swing Bridge / Sizzles; Bára Gísladóttir – SILVA; Kali Malone – Does Spring Hide Its Joy

    by 5:4 June 29, 2023 • 11:23
    June 29, 2023 • 11:23

    It’s been interesting to compare and contrast three recent releases all of which feature drone at the core of their musical language. (The music is long, so i’m going to keep this quite short.) Drone music tends to operate in one of two ways: either by establishing a literal fundamental, …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Dark Music Days 2023 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 February 11, 2023 • 19:10
    February 11, 2023 • 19:10

    The majority of the concerts at this year’s Dark Music Days were focused on chamber music. The most leftfield of these came courtesy of Trio Isak, in a concert titled ‘Ballet on the Moon’. That title in part derived from the opening piece on the programme, Daníel Bjarnason‘s White Flags, …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Dark Music Days 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 February 7, 2023 • 16:34
    February 7, 2023 • 16:34

    Larger-scale works featured in several Dark Music Days events. One of the toughest to engage with was given by Caput Ensemble, a concert marred by the yawningly awful Polo by Simon Mawhinney, a quarter of an hour’s worth of relentless, faceless, arbitrary blarney. Veronique Vaka‘s Holos was marginally more interesting, …

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  • Best of the YearMixtapes

    Mixtape #67 : Best Albums of 2022

    by 5:4 January 1, 2023 • 05:00
    January 1, 2023 • 05:00

    HAPPY NEW YEAR! i want to give a loud shout out of thanks to all of you who have supported 5:4 during the last year, especially my most excellent posse of Patrons. As always, i’m starting the new year with a look back at the best albums of 2022, in …

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  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2022 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 December 31, 2022 • 00:00
    December 31, 2022 • 00:00

    So here they are, crowning this year’s 5:4 Best Albums list, the most imaginative, extraordinary and downright amazing releases of 2022.

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Bára Gísladóttir & Skúli Sverrisson – Live from the Spirit Store / Bára Gísladóttir – VÍDDIR

    by 5:4 October 28, 2022 • 09:31
    October 28, 2022 • 09:31

    Over the last few years i’ve been more and more deeply impressed by the music of Icelandic composer and performer Bára Gísladóttir. First contact was at the Dark Music Days in 2020, when i saw her in action with Skúli Sverrisson, forming a complex double bass / electric bass soundworld …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Dark Music Days 2022 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 March 11, 2022 • 13:15
    March 11, 2022 • 13:15

    Postponed from its usual position in late January to early March due to last-minute Covid restriction shenanigans, Iceland’s Dark Music Days festival was therefore not quite so dark as usual. All the same, it was hardly the Light Music Days, and in any case Mother Nature was seemingly more determined …

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  • Best of the YearMixtapes

    Mixtape #63 : Best Albums of 2021

    by 5:4 January 1, 2022 • 09:32
    January 1, 2022 • 09:32

    Happy New Year! i want to begin 2022 by saying a bigger THANK YOU than usual to all of you who have actively supported and followed 5:4 during the last year, most of all my faithful band of Patrons. While 2021 isn’t a year i’m sorry to see the back …

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  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2021 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 December 31, 2021 • 00:00
    December 31, 2021 • 00:00

    Continuing where we left off, here are the best of the best of this year’s new releases, each one a fantastic album that will by turns boggle and blow your mind.

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  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2021 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 November 29, 2021 • 15:46
    November 29, 2021 • 15:46

    One of my recurring trains of thought during HCMF 2021 was concerned with the notion of continuity. This was, very simply, due to the fact that all of the best things i heard at the festival had an incredibly clear, logical sense running through them that, regardless of their inner …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Bára Gísladóttir & Skúli Sverrisson – Caeli

    by 5:4 April 22, 2021 • 15:18
    April 22, 2021 • 15:18

    Early last year, before life on earth tilted over into abject abnormality, i experienced a performance at the Dark Music Days in Reykjavík that, in hindsight, i perhaps summed up a little too succinctly. On the one hand, it was completely true when i wrote, of the performance given by …

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  • Best of the YearMixtapes

    Mixtape #59 : Best Albums of 2020

    by 5:4 January 1, 2021 • 07:45
    January 1, 2021 • 07:45

    A very Happy New Year to you all! As always, i want to begin 2021 by thanking all of you around the world who have followed and supported 5:4 during the last year, most especially and above all to my growing number of esteemed and beloved Patrons. i don’t think …

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  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2020 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 December 30, 2020 • 00:00
    December 30, 2020 • 00:00

    i’m sure i’m not alone in being somewhat impatient to see the back of 2020. It’s been a horribly testing and demoralising year, and of course there’ll be some way to go into 2021 (and likely beyond) before life starts to settle into whatever version of ‘normal’ eventually prevails. But …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Bára Gísladóttir – HĪBER

    by 5:4 October 21, 2020 • 11:25
    October 21, 2020 • 11:25

    At the more intriguing end of the Icelandic contemporary music continuum is HĪBER, a new album of electroacoustic pieces by Bára Gísladóttir. When writing about Bára’s performance at this year’s Dark Music Days (with Skúli Sverrisson), i remarked how “what we heard in the first five minutes … was essentially …

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  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    Dark Music Days 2020 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 February 9, 2020 • 08:01
    February 9, 2020 • 08:01

    As i mentioned previously, allusions to or evocations of nature were few and far between at this year’s Dark Music Days, indicating the strength and diversity of Iceland’s more searching, abstract approach to composition. This seemed to be precisely the point of Sigurður Árni Jónsson’s Illusion of Explanatory Depth, premièred …

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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
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