In July 2009 amiina, then a four-piece band, set out on a journey across Iceland performing in lighthouses and other unusual locations. The music had been written especially for performances in small spaces, and in great proximity to the audience. 
The inspiration behind the journey came the first time the band performed in a lighthouse. A man in the audience described how he had experienced the music in those surroundings: Standing on the top floor of the lighthouse, he had felt the music travel up through the structure and out across the ocean, as if the lighthouse were now projecting music instead of light.
The group set off in a big van packed with instruments, accompanied by a photographer, one spouse, one newborn baby and another about to be born, and together they drove over rugged roads, seemingly to the end of the world, to perform music.
The songs were a mix of old and new, little nocturnes in simple arrangement.

The Lighthouse Project

from The Lighthouse Project - released June 2013
Song by amiina

Perth

The Lighthouse Project - released June 2013

Hilli (Lighthouse version)

The Lighthouse Project - Released June 2013
song by amiina

Bíólagið

from The Lighthouse Project - Released June 2013
Song by Lee Hazlewood - arrangement by amiina

Leather and Lace

The Lighthouse Project - Released June 2013

Kola (Lightouse version)

from the Lighthouse Project - Released in June 2013

06 N65°16,21 W13°34,49

amiina is a band based in Reykjavík Iceland. At present the band counts five people - Hildur Ársælsdóttir, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir, Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson (aka Kippi Kaninus).
The group's origins go back to the late 1990s, when four girls studying string instruments at the Reykjavík College of Music formed a string quartet. The group started out playing classical music, but increasingly moved on to play all sorts of music with various bands in Reykjavík.
In 1999 the quartet joined Icelandic band Sigur Rós on-stage. The collaboration continued for over a decade, with amiina contributing strings to Sigur Rós’ music on tour and in the recording studio on the albums ( ) , Takk, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust and Valtari.
In 2004, amiina’s first EP, AnimaminA, was released, followed by the single “Seoul” (2006), the full-length album Kurr (2007), a Lee Hazlewood collaboration on a 7” vinyl Hilli (at the Top of...) (2008) and the limited release EP Re Minore (2009). In the autumn of 2007, drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen joined amiina on tour, adding percussion to the band’s textures. A few months later, collaboration between the electronic artist Kippi Kaninus and amiina was established while preparing a show together for the Reykjavík Arts Festival. The merging of Kippi Kaninus' electronics and rhythms with amiina's sounds and Magnús' percussion became the starting point for more established collaboration between the six musicians.
amiina’s second long playing album, the much acclaimed Puzzle, was released by the band in 2010 in Iceland, getting worldwide distribution the following year. The songs on Puzzle are more rhythmically rugged than amiina's previous work and feature heavier use of electronics. amiina's long-standing fondness for zero-g melodies and open-minded instrumentation, however, continues.
In 2009 amiina started to perform their original soundtracks to pioneering German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger's 1930's silhouette animations of the timeless fairy tales Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Aladdin. The so called Animagica program, originally performed at the Branchage film festival in Jersey, has now been put on show at Art festivals around the world.
The band released The Lighthouse Project in 2013, a work centered around some performances given in Icelandic lighthouses.
In between work with amiina and growing ever larger families, band members have also kept themselves busy, recording or touring with other artist such as Sigur Rós, Yann Tiersen, Spiritualized, Efterklang, Damien Rice, Yukihiro Takahasi, Canon Blue, Pétur Ben, Ben Forst Tilbury, Borko, múm, Jónsi & Alex, Kippi Kaninus, adhd, Moses Hightower and Sin Fang to name a few.

amiina's new album - Fantômas - will be released in November 2016. The release is inspired by the 1913 film Fantômas 2, which amiina is currently touring with an original live score.