Stein Thor Winter Solstice Songs 2012 - 2019

Una Melodia - Primavera 2015

This is an open collab by Dirk,, with wonderful soothing aaahhhha by Milana,,,  two of SC´s success stories....   I added some sugar,, hope you enjoy the result 

Voice Milana  https://soundcloud.com/milanazilnik
Piano Dirk Maassen https://soundcloud.com/ascoltadi

rest Stein Thor

Exodus - Dirk Maassen piano/Milana vocalise - Stein Thor Remix

This is my last song here for awhile,, going to take a break from SC till I don´t know.

Hope the changes they make to this site will start to move away from mass streaming back to nurturing a community of independent musicians.

Goodbye SC

On Thin Ice

My Facebook page

Remember?

Spatial Perpetuum Mobile

Number six,,,    this one was fairly straight forward from the improv....   for those who just tuned in,, I´m writing up on sheet improvs I did one lazy saturday night two weeks ago,,, and a few others also from a couple of days later.  The six I have now done under Reflections  are all from the same night.

Sorry I´m spamming these out,, but it helps my workflow,,,  the goal is to do 12 and then stop.  and probably record them on a real piano or make orchestral versions.. 

This one I personally like,,,  it is what I feel inside,, and I really like playing it...

here is sheet music of number 6
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rrdexnxhlsmfo7x/Reflection%20no%206%20-%20Full%20Score.pdf

The picture is the midnight sun at Héðinshöfði, north of Iceland....

Sheet music

Reflection No. 6

Just found a folder with loads of older tracks, from 2012 for example and some are pretty nice. I threw a new sample library on this one, some small eq with my more experienced mixing and I think the outcome is pretty nice.

What do you think?

What Are You Thinking About, Mr Redwing_Remaster

One of the masters of Soundcloud is Dirk Maassen,  makes wonderful music that people love and he also manages to keep fresh and evolve. He also makes his music available to us mortals and this is my attempt on his collab...

Here you can listen to the original 
https://soundcloud.com/dirk-maassen-official/open

here is what he has to say about the project and be sure to listen to his music,  I´m pretty sure most of my followers already do...

This is the first of a series of open collabs for my next album "einklang" .

the track is at 90 bpm !

I am looking for any kind of electronic, ambient, ethnik, duduk, grooves or whatever gives us the chills.... no lyrics, no vocals this time :)

First reason to join into this collab should be fun and passion for music and no guarantee that the track will make it on the album but if it makes it, we will share 50/50 in case the track will generate more than 100 € a year (which is hard enough :). Full credit is understood...

Dirk's Soundcloud Page Links are as Follows: 
@dirk-maassen-official
@ascoltadi

Follow facebook 

Dirk Maassen "Open" - Stein Thor Remix

A love song,,,,

strange to say it, but I like this song my friends,,, and it´s a personal one...

In Your Arms - A Love Song (done)

Tonight Im playing some of my tracks live for the public, not often I do that, and I have an old 1972 Steinway to use.

Just did a fast recording yesterday to hear the sound, and I think this might be the start of some new recordings.

Una Melodia Semplice Live Recording

Most years since 2012 I have done a winter solstice song. This year it was a bit special, because I did an entire concert last night, to honour this day, which for me is extremely special, the darkest period in Iceland but also the most hopeful.

Here is the concert if you want to hear
https://youtu.be/TFUApG5xHk4

The recording is very substandard but I dont have time for anything else Im afraid this year, I wrote it yesterday, made sheet music and performed it the same night. Today has been a day of doing everything I have not done for the last two weeks.

But the sheet is done, and I will hopefully do an entire release with Winter Solstice songs soon.

Merry Christmas, enjoy the light, and love you all. 

Stein.

Winter Solstice 2023_Beauty lies in brevity

A Final Odyssey

An excellent guitar player, Stan Leonard,  put this base up for collab and I added some sugar to it...   Stan Leonard https://soundcloud.com/stanleonard  on guitar,,,  Stein Thor rest..   

Please repost and follow us if you like it,,,   we need all the help we can get :)

And yes,, it´s a free download for you pleasure


Facebook 

Lucid Dream By Stan Leonard - Stein Thor Arrangemnent

Simple zoom recording of my recently aquired 1972 Steinway B.

A Memory From The Past

Thorsteins Theme

Finally I´m somewhat happy,,  after some tinkering I think I arrived at how to set up my mic´s and how to play my upright for this project that has been building up for a long time -  And last night I did the first session of the hours albums.

The idea is to sit down and just record, and thats what I did last night, recorded 8 songs and this one is number two. Each album will be 8 songs named after the monastic hours, the circle of christian meditation that has mostly become lost in today society. 
https://steinthor.bandcamp.com/album/december-hours-2014


I really hope you like this idea and sound, and that some of you might even buy the whole album on itunes and bandcamp when the time comes. The other album Skuggaskil (physical release) is coming out next week,,, cover is finished and now they only need to print and put everything together.

Buy Bandcamp

2 Lauds - From December Hours Now out on Bandcamp

Every year now, at least past two year´s I have written a piano piece on this day, where the day is the shortest here in Iceland. In icelandic it´s called vetrarsólstöður, one of those words that foreigners think we choke on.

Today we had maybe 5 hours of sunlight,  the day length is 4h 8 minutes to be exact I think. However it was a nice day.

So to keep this tradition going I made this improv, that in the end became quite long. I´m still using my upright dampened, that is using the felt option but now I recorded it from behind so less noise.

No midi, no option to fix, so you could say this has not been photoshopped my friends.

Soon the days start getting longer which is always nice to think about.

(edit) just realized this improv is in sol minor,,,  how fitting :),,, not intentional

Winter solstice 2014 - How precious are our daylight hours

A song ---

Thanks

Stein
http://open.spotify.com/user/1262355698


Spotify

Una Melodia Semplice (x) (sheet done)

Been awhile since I did a piano piece and posted here. Hope you like it. 

Far Away

Tallin

Been feeling a bit under the weather of late, lost my way..

thought I´d make a piano piece to get it out of me,,, haven´t done one in awhile.  Kind of like the result although I´m of course biased.

pst:
If anyone reads this, then I´ll be starting removal of my older pieces soon off soundcloud, if you are interested in some of those songs then please let me know and I will let them be available for download for you.  I´m pretty sure I won´t be renewing my account and have started concentrating more on other places since SC is pretty much a time hog and dead  end for me and my music it seems. But will be keeping a free account though probably. So please let me know soon if there are any songs you want to keep with you.

Una Melodia Triste

I had not done a piano piece for awhile, so this is it.

Thank you for your support, you know who you are :)

Free DL btw

Una Melodia Amorosa

Una Melodia Per Te

photo by Eyþór Ingi Jónsson
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eythoringi/


Am I on Spotify you ask?, of course  

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3q1LSNssFkpGMV7qJpO6Tk

spotify:artist:3q1LSNssFkpGMV7qJpO6Tk

Una Melodia Sospesa (free dl)

We all tick on

one take, no layering, idea is to make train the left hand 



Clockwork (sheet done)

Today I hate my country, really detest what is going on. I work as a church organist and there is so much hate speech going on agains the church that I´m seriously considering changing places. Other things are also disgusting here but enough of that.

On the positive side my music for a short film was voted best score on a film festival in USA,,, thats something I guess.

But in times like this it´s good to have a few happy places when things are like this.  First one is my grandparents farm (picture),, Ytri Tunga Tjörnes,  where I feel I´m at home,,   second is Goldberg suite by Bach,, when I listen to the aria played by Glenn Gould I go to a happy place,,  third is letting all go and make music and fourth is being with people I love,  and thats my best place.  When I manage to combine some of these elements I manage to clear my mind, and this piece here is something like that. You can hear some elements of Goldberg in it I hope.

Thank you all listeners, commenters and friends on Soundcloud for being part of my happy place. Feel free to download and I hope this music brings you also to my happy place.

My Happy Place (long description, musical blog)

First day of real winter here in Iceland, I mean loads of snow..

Recorded my upright in winter mood, also since it´s one year since I recorded my december hours release..  

spotify:album:1I3pBFccouUgGX8N1VjB4C
https://open.spotify.com/album/1I3pBFccouUgGX8N1VjB4C

Hope you enjoy this piece and maybe if you download it do me a favour and share this song, follow me on my facebook and spotify...  early christmas present for me :)

Video on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Steinmusica/videos/10156371175925601/

youtube coming up

Video on fb page

Meditation (with video)(free dl)

A short piece I did for a group that requested music that sounds like Vivaldi, 

hope this is somewhat like Vivaldi

Done only with Berlin Strings 

Sounds like Signor Vivaldi? - Berlin strings

Two posts in one night,,,  well with the status of soundcloud these days who gives a crap...

Just realized that tonight is winter solstice, and soon the day will get longer. Here in Iceland this is a big deal since we have only about 5 hours of light a day.

I have done a song on this day for about 4 years I think,,, and some of them are my favorite. Today was a good day, had a lovely concert with one of my choirs and I feel good. Hope this song sends you some of my feelings, this is probably my last Solstice song on SC since my posts are going to get much rarer in 2016.

It´s free download also, so enjoy. If you download, please help my music by sharing where ever you can, thats how the world works these days.

Stein.

Winter Solstice 2015 - Last ray of light

Happy new year my friends,,, 2016 is here, 2015 was the year that mostly nothing happened,,,

2016 I don´t have high hopes for,, but I hope it will bring you all nice things.

Free download if you want this piece.

Una Melodia Dal Passato

Never been blessed with a child, and probably never will,, but sometimes I like to imagine I have been and make music that I hope a little child would like, a little lullaby.

Free download for you my friends, only ask that if you download maybe share the music to others, and help my music gain some ground :)

My spotify page could use some love too 
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3q1LSNssFkpGMV7qJpO6Tk

My spotify

Your First Lullaby Little Girl

Sometimes when I´m locked, not feeling the music I like to take a fixed something and just play around it. Thats what this improv is, right hand just keeping the beat (mostly fixed but some errors there :) ), and the left hand just doing melodic and harmonic stuff around it. 

Not my best work but kind of liked to do something tonight.

Center

For me 21. of december is kind of the last day of the year. It marks the end of days getting shorter which here in the north is a big deal and in a few weeks we start noticing the days being longer.

I´ve done a song on this day for the past few years and I almost forgot to do it today, it´s now 23:22 and I´m writing this, played the improv at around 22: smth.

2016 is almost over and it was a really heavy year. Tomorrow is my dads birtday, but he passed away this spring. My wife is in Italy visiting her dad but her mum passed away this october. Neither of them were very old, my dad 62 and my stepmother just over 70. I play funerals a lot and usually it´s for older people thank god. And my grandma is 94.

Musically this year has been up and down, I think for me as a musician it´s been pretty good, I think I´m better at what I´m doing. The professional life however not so good, going ok but unfortunately I´ve not  seen the things I hoped for this year and I lost one of the best things I´ve had, my girls choir which quit this fall.

So I have decided next year will be the year of changes, take the cards and divide again. Let´s just hope it deals well :)

Hope you enjoy the song my friends, merry Christmas or whatever, and happy new year. Thank you for supporting my music. This one if free download if you like it. Just throw me a share or a comment or something if you download as a thank you.

Stein.

Winter Solstice 2016 - Animae

Live recording at Hallgrímskirkja 12. july 2018

Alto flute Pamela De Sensi
Organ Steingrímur Þórhallsson

New piece by me that me and my wife played yesterday.

Meditation On The Summer That Never Came No. 1 (live Recording)

Autumn Dream (x)

Hello Darkness (x)

A little piano piece for Halloween... 

Hope you enjoy it

And do not loose your heads!!

Stein

Headless Waltz

One piece a day in november

here is 4th of november

very fragile, broken glass, so beautiful but also so dangerous... every step is hard!!!

November songs 4. nov. "Broken glass"

Softer Than Silk Is Your Touch

This was a hard improv, quite complicated and many hard and dangerous steps... 

hope you enjoy it,,,,

december here in Iceland is warmer than june good folks. Tell mr Trump to stick his ignorance about global warming up his ignorant ass (sorry about the language.)

On A Warm December Night

Hi friends...

I think Ive done a winter solstice song for about 5 years now, even more. This one comes late, but its pretty much on the correct time. The photo is from yesterday, 21. december, wonderful day here in Iceland. Clear skies and the few hours of sun we get are wonderful. The photo is taken around 16:30 or so. The colours are what keep us alive in this country.

The song is a drunken improv, Im really sorry I could not do more today. Just got wonderful news that Ive been accepted into a really high class tailer company. 

That kind of took over. So, soon, 2019,,,,  Im 44 years old, done a lot, but not enough. 2018 was not the big up I was hoping for, 2019??? Will it save the day.

Love you all

Stein

Winter Solstice 2018 - The future is always ahead of the past (free dl)

Been working so much on trailer music that I just had to do something to clear my mind and ears.

Come see more on my facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/7tein/

Grey Morning (sheet done)

Well, its 23:37 here in Iceland, I finally managed to keep my tradition, since 2012 a song for this day.

The photo is from todays sunset, 22. desember, around 15:30.

The reason it took so long to make a track today was that I decided to record a live piece, on my out of tune upright. So much more noise, crap, and sound so so... but its real recording, live playing and no fixing afterwards.

So here is the 2019 winter solstice song.

Winter Solstice 2019 "Ballet For A Brighter Day"

I put a lot of work behind this one, strings can be a pain and my MBP was fuming with the samples at times.

Hope you enjoy this one, I´m pretty proud of the result.

Freedom

Saw these today(picture), the first flowers of 2013, it was where I often play funerals and was playing one today. The beauty of the symbolism is quite nice, that one of the most fertile gardens in Iceland is where many people come to say the last goodbye to their loved ones.

This song is not sad, at least it should not be, it´s just a choral to life,  goes up and down, happy and not, just ast life is for most people I assume.  

These days life is like that for me at least, today was good, tomorrow who knows,,,,   

Been working a lot, haven´t been commenting here on SC as I should,,, will make up for that in the next days, sorry about that.

Life awakens again - a choral

Try to match the music with your heartbeat

Happy easter, and happy wonderful spring to you all my friends.

Heartbeat

It´s that time of year,,, the crossroads time,, do I head on or take a turn,,,,   easy way out is the way ahead,,,,  so I wonder, and wonder,,,   and play around with the black keys,,, F# major,, lovely key

The picture is the midi file,,,  I thought it came out nicely as a graphic piece of "art" :)

This piece is a whole improv, just a mediation.......   don´t have energy to do something organized,,,  cause at the moment live in a crappy country, with crappy government, idiot nation(not everyone but enough),  crappy weather,  but 95% of the time I´m pretty happy with it.....

Crossroads

I like to work in sets, sorry for that,,,  when I have time and energy to write songs they do come out pretty fast.  This one is a response to the one I did this morning, I like this one much more....

Good night my friends ..... sleep tight,, (here in Iceland it´s about 23:30 and full light outside)

Good night my friend, the midnight sun sends it´s greetings

Sheet music
www.steinmusica.com

If you want to contact me I´m only an email away

stein.musica@gmail.com

Always happy to lend music and would love to take part in cinematic projects.

Stein_Thor

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks