Fantasia over "Lilja" is based on a very old Icelandic folk song, so old it's almost gregorian. There is a saying in Iceland that everybody wanted to have written "Lilja" (actually meaning the words rather than the music, but who cares). This is my share to the fulfillment of that saying, an enjoyable share, especially in the considering that I have never before been involved in anything "folk" or "national".

The work consists of several linked computer generated variations, where the computer has been fed the original song and plays it back in original order, reverse order, or simply back and forth, in its entirety or in looping bits and pieces, a technique mostly used by "techno" dance musicians. Every single note heard is therefore taken from the original song, and then the material is further developed in register, speed, dynamics, articulation and spatialisation.

Technically this is a variation of granular synthesis where many "grains" played fast form a variably dense sound mass. Usually the individual grain frequency is random within some limits, but in this case the grains consist of variably long bits of the "Lilja" song, always giving the results some character of the original song and its strange "pseudo-dorian but not dorian at all" mode.

All the grains come from a single FM bell sound that goes through many transformations of dynamics and articulation, some of which result in "surprise" side effects that are used constructively or destructively as (sp)icing on the aural "cake".

Fantasia over "Lilja" was composed in the summer of 1998 at the Kopavogur Computer Music Center, Iceland. Final processing and four-track mixdown was done at DIEM, Aarhus, Denmark in October 1998.

Fantasia over "Lilja"

This is the last movement of my one and only orchestral piece. It has the subtitle "On the Bottom of the Ocean". It was written as an assignment for entry exams into graduate school. At the time The Titanic had been recently rediscovered and somebody thought that would be a cool assignment.
I went home and wrote a little piece for piano and two trombones, and was admitted into the school. Later, when about to graduate, I went back to the beginning, orchestrated the little Titanic peace and wrote three more movements for the orchestral piece that would be my final graduate thesis.
The performance here is by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra There are other performances with more quiet audiences (this was a children's concert) but this is by far the best performance of this movement so I go ahead with it.
This is a little recording of what used to be me many years ago. Times change, but looking back, I can see a promising young composer doing something at least mildi interesting.

The Titanic: IV. Movement (1987)

Erting (2020):
The piece is based on recordings from natural and urban soundscapes from Reykjavík, Southern California and Paris. The original recordings are from various pretty different phenomena, but the common theme is sound based on impulses, either regular as in close to pulse waves or irregular, closer to rattling. Then it goes off on an abstract journey of its own. 
Most of the sounds are at least mildly irritating, hence the title; the Icelandic word for irritation.

Erting

Erting - Stereo

Rikhardur H. Fridriksson: Gott (Good) (2022):
This piece is a drawn-out rendering of one spoken sentence saying that my old hometown is a good place to live in. This was a famous quote from a former major of the town. When that same town, many years later, commisioned a piece from me, I thought of this sentence. Of course as a way of flattering my benefactors, but also as a way af expressing my fond memories of growing up there.
The piece is done in an three-dimensional immersive ambisonic format that can be decoded into any loudspeaker layout with the appropriate software tools.

Gott

Gott - Stereo

Lidan III is based on sounds related to well-being and joy in a direct or indirect way. No attempt is made to tell a story in any way; the sounds are developed according to pure musical laws.

During the making of the piece, Icelandic electronic music pioneer, Magnus Blöndal Johannsson died, resulting in a couple of quotes from his works being incorporated into this piece.

Lidan III was produced entirely at the Kopavogur Computer Music Centre in the darkest part of the winter of 2004-05.

Lidan III

Scherzo was written for Duo Harpverk's concert in Washington DC in 2013. It is a light-hearted piece since I thought it was a good time for not taking myself too seriously. For some reason a number of quotes from the rock band Jethro Tull snuck their way into the piece, most of them, probably, in unrecognizable form.

Scherzo

Hustle and Bustle (2013) is totally developed out of Indian street-sounds. I was done as a soundtrack for a video of Eyglo Hardardottir, but can otherwise stand on its own. Link to the video is at http://vimeo.com/rikhardur/ 

Hustle and Bustle

... e mezzo (2016)
After a strict work period, in the middle of a large work, I realized I had way too much material on my hands; enough material for many works. I then decided to take a break from the big work and make a smaller one, which would take some material out of the equation and at the same time give me a better perspective on what I was working with. 
This intermediate work is made out of human sounds, mostly generated in the mouth or its vicinity. The recordings were made in Kopavogur, sound-material was made in California, the composition took place in New York and Reykjavik, and the mix-down back in Kopavogur. The process thus came to a full circle in the end.

... e mezzo

Spuni II / Improv II (2012) is, as the name suggests, made up on the spot. Unlike previous improvisations, where the underlying software was finished in advance, this time the software is written on the spot, making this the moment of living dangerously. This type of instantaneous programming is called “live coding”. The programming language used is called “ixi lang”. It was conceived by Thor Magnusson, built on top of the “Super Collider” environment. See: http://www.ixi-audio.net/

The sound material is made totally out of short riffs from my favourite rock band, the prog band Gentle Giant. After all these years I'm still hearing new things from these old recordings, which can only mean that they age extremely well.

Spuni II

"Kri-Kri" (2007) is the verbal interpretation of the sound of the arctic tern (sterna paradisae). The piece is based on the sound of attacking arctic terns in Northern Iceland. Their highly aggressive tendencies were the inspiration for the piece. The original recording wasn’t exactly without risk...
This is part 3 of "Three Works on the Nature of Iceland" (2007)

Kri-Kri (Sterna Paradisae)

"Malarrif" (2007) is interpreted from within its lighthouse during a storm. Resonances abound, from the lighthouse itself, as well as wires attached to it on the outside. A big hollow object like the lighthouse acts like a body of an enormous musical instrument, giving the sound of the storm its own characteristics. No sounds have been altered. This is the pure sound of the lighthouse.
This is part 2 of "Three Works on the Nature of Iceland" (2007)

Malarrif

Rikhardur H. Fridriksson (b. 1960) studied composition in Reykjavík, New York, Siena and The Hague. His teachers included Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Elias Tanenbaum, Franco Donatoni and Clarence Barlow.

His works have been performed and broadcast in many countries. He has received a working grants from the Icelandic government, the DV cultural prize, and a mention at the Bourges sound art competition.

He lives in Reykjavik, composing and teaching electronic music at Iceland University of the Arts.

His music falls into two general categories; he either makes pure electro-acoustic music, working mostly with natural sounds and their movement in space, or he does live improvisations, playing electric guitar, processed through live electronics. In that field he either appears alone or with the group Icelandic Sound Company.

In his spare time he can be caught playing punk rock at various locations.

rikhardur

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