Ever since playing Hugleiðing (Meditation) by composer Karólína Eiríksdóttir for the first time back in 2006, this Icelandic solo violin music project has been melting in my veins.

In 2013, John Speight wrote his Soliloquy (track 7 and 8) at my request. Two more recent commissions are on the album, both from composers who play the violin: Fragile Stillness by Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir and Aria by María Huld Markan.

Iceland has a long tradition of violin playing and according to folklore every farmer in certain valleys up north was a fiddler. Ea Fantasia (track 4), my own composition, is inspired by the opening track Alia Fantasia by Nicola Matteis Jr. He was the London-born son of the Italian composer Nicola Matteis, who wrote Ayers and Grounds. Nicola Junior was a violinist like his father and lived in Vienna, where he composed numerous ballets for the imperial opera. His bariolage (arpeggios over four strings) remind me of the opening of Fratres by Arvo Pärt and Bach’s Chaconne—key works in the violin repertoire—both of which have been a great inspiration to me.

In Fragile Stillness (track 2), Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir experiments with textures. Or as she puts it: “The piece is inspired by a weather condition called froststillur. It is characterized by an intense calmness where there is no wind and a crisp, frozen atmosphere.

Karólína wrote Meditation (track 3) in 1996 for violinist Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir, who premiered the piece in June 1997. Meditation is in one movement, built on ideas which change and develop, and the composer describes it as “variations without a theme.

Aria (track 5) by María Huld Markan was written for me in 2023. Her solo piece is written under the influence of Maria Callas and her romanticism and lontano as she sings Puccini. María is reflecting on the concept of the genius, and motifs are flowing from all the fountains contemplating the romantic violin repertoire.

On his Adagio (track 6), composer Tryggvi Baldvinsson writes: “This small Adagio can be seen as a short play in which three distinct characters appear. Each has its own traits, its own personality. The encounter between these characters is bound to have a profound and lasting impact on them. As for the actual course of events, I leave that entirely to the listener’s imagination. The piece was composed for Rut Ingólfsdóttir, who premiered it in 1997.

John Speight is an English-Icelandic singer and composer I got to know through working with the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, playing and recording his works. He wrote Soliloquy (track 7 and 8) in 2012 and it is the only piece on the album in two movements. The first movement is slow and thoughtful, while the second is crazy and furious.

Tranquility (track 10) by Sveinn Lúðvík Björnsson is possibly the shortest piece I have ever played. The story of it is longer than the piece itself—and too good to omit. Sveinn Lúðvík, who is visually impaired, was renting a studio in an old banana storage in Brautarholt, Reykjavík. To enter his studio he had to walk through the studio of artist Helgi Valgeirsson. Above the door there was a painting by Helgi which inspired Sveinn Lúðvík deeply; he had the sense it was very somber in its mood—a naked woman with her back turned. Moved by the scene he wrote Tranquility. Later, when discussing the piece with Helgi and admiring the tragic impact of the naked woman in the picture, Sveinn was shocked to discover that the painting, in fact, was of bananas and oranges.

Véronique Vaka Jacques, a Canadian-Icelandic composer and trained classical cellist, grounds her work in the geology and topography of Iceland. In Ofdune (track 9), a map of North Iceland serves as groundwork, with the geographical details of a descending river abstractly translated into the work’s time progression, using the river’s path through hills and valleys as a loose blueprint. This concept of descent is echoed in the title, Ofdune, which is derived from the Old English meaning “downwards” or “off the hill”.

Jón Nordal’s Hvert örstutt spor (Each Tiny Step, track 11) is from the play Silfurtunglið by Icelandic Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness. This is a famous Icelandic song, here in my gospel music influenced arrangement for solo violin. I tried to stay true to the beautiful and simple melody and the text of the poem filled with nostalgic longing.

- Una Sveinbjarnardóttir

Recorded in Reykholtskirkja West Iceland January 24. - 25. 2025

Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, Violin

Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir, Tonmeister

Dan Shores, Recording, Editing, Mixing, & Mastering Engineer

Eva Schram, Photography

Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, Liner Notes

EA FANTASIA 

Ten pieces in time for violin solo

1. Alia Fantasia (Nicola Matteis) 3:31

2. Fragile Stillness (Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir) 4:21

3. Meditation (Karólína Eiríksdóttir) 8:52

4. Ea Fantasia (Una Sveinbjarnardóttir) 3:59

5. Aria (María Huld Markan) 4:47

6. Adagio (Tryggvi Baldvinsson) 12:50

7-8. Soliloquy (John Speight)

I 4:52

II 4:02

9. Ofdune (Veronique Vaka Jacques) 8:54

10. Tranquility (Sveinn Lúðvík Björnsson) 1:29

11. Each Tiny Step (Jón Nordal/arr. solo violin, Una Sveinbjarnardóttir) 2:55

Release date: May 15, 2026
UPC: 053479228802

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