Monday 21 August 2017, 7.30pm
Icelandic double-bill in the form of visual, sound and performance artist, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, plus vocalist and classically trained multi-instrumentalist, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir - formerly of múm.
“Hallucinatory, hypnotic, and flecked with ambient-industrial detail, Sigmarsson's carefully sutured material inhales and exhales like a slumbering body.” – Textura on Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson's So Long
Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson is an visual, sound and performance artist born in Akureyri, Iceland in 1977. He studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatory Den Haag, Holland in 1997 to 1998, and received MFA at Fachochshcule fur bilende kunst Hannover, Germany in 2004. Sigmarsson exhibits his paintings & drawings internationally but is probably most known for his energetic performances at a wide array of venues.
His approach is that of the trembling artist, struggling to make sense and direction out of a creative impulse. Regardless of the medium, there is a continuous search for order and chaos throughout his body of work. For some time he has been releasing solo recordings with albums on Trente Oiseaux, ERS, Helen Scarsdale, Fire Inc., Hanson Records, Bawag Contemporary Vienna, Korm Plastics, Bottrop Boy, Ultra Eczema and De Player.
Kristín Anna (Kría Brekkan) is an Icelandic musician and artist.
At Cafe Oto she will be performing her own songs for piano and voice.
Kristín Anna was a member of the band múm 1998 - 2006. As Kría Brekkan she used to perform one woman shows and put out off-the radar releases between 2006 - 2015.
Last year Kristín Anna released a double LP of improvised vocal performances done in a week long residency in the desert of California titled Howl. Howl came out on Bel-Air Glamour Records, a young sub-label to London ́s Vinyl Factory curated by visual artist Ragnar Kjartansson and Ingibjörg Sigurrjónsdóttir.
A frequent collaborator of Ragnar, she stars in his famed video installation “The Visitors” playing accordion, guitar and singing. She acts or plays in many of his other pieces as well as occasionally writing and performing music with him.
Kristín Anna co-wrote and performed the music for Kjartansson’s stage art piece “Forever Love” with her twin sister Gyða Valtýsdóttir and the Dessner twin brothers of The National. They performed few of the songs from piece in the Barbican Theater last summer at a Bel-Air Glamour Soirée that coincided with Kjartansson ́s retrospective at the Barbican Art Center. She also performed few of her own songs on a grand piano and sang to raving reviews.
Later this year they will come out as a double album titled "I Must Be The Devil".
