News

Catch our full KEXP performance

The last time we performed on Iceland Airwaves, KEXP shot a full performance of us playing in the cozy Sundlaugin studio, just outside Reykjavík. It is now ready, and you can watch it here.

Hjaltalín one of “Icelandic Indie bands you don’t want to miss”!

We don’t want to be too full of ourselves, but we would be lying if we didn’t admit to liking seeing this!

New song, Anyways, released for an Icelandic TV series

We have released a new song, called “Everything is Gonna be Like Everything Will Ever Be (Anyways)”, and you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77x4cjF5I9s

It’s the title song of the new Icelandic crime TV series: Hraunið (The Lava Field). We were fortunate to work with the great american producer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily on this one. Enjoy!

Days of Gray wins the Icelandic Music Awards

Our very own soundtrack to the movie Days of Gray, won the award for the album of the year in the 2013 Icelandic Music Awards, in the “other” category. We want to thank the filmmakers involved for a nice cooperation – you can find more information about the film here: www.daysofgray.com

Our album, Enter 4, was also nominated in the Pop/Rock category. We actually got a bunch of other nominations, and we’re especially proud that the engineer for Enter 4, Sveinn Helgi Halldórsson, won the award for the engineer of the year. Last but not least, our very own Sigríður Thorlacius was awarded the prize for being the female singer of the year!

Days of Gray out on DVD

We’re pleased to announce that Days of Gray (the film with a soundtrack by Hjaltalín) is finally out on dvd. We really enjoyed being a part of this project, and look forward to further live concerts featuring the original score. Tote bags, DVDs, our soundtrack, booklets – Everything can be found at www.daysofgray.com.

Biography

Hjaltalín is an Icelandic group that was founded in 2004, when a handful of high school students decided to take part in a songwriting competition. After the success of the song Goodbye July/Margt að ugga on the Icelandic radio, the group went to the studio and recorded their debut album, Sleepdrunk Seasons. Its release in late 2007 sparked nationwide attention and awards. At the same time, the group began to play abroad and the year of 2009 was largely spent on tours all around Europe.

In the summer of 2009, the band began recording their second album, Terminal, which features the current members of Hjaltalín, Axel, Guðmundur, Hjörtur, Högni, Rebekka, Sigríður and Viktor. The album was chosen as the album of the year and featured, amongst other things, a large orchestra, and expanded the sound of the group substantially. In June 2010, Hjaltalín and the Icelandic Symphony orchestra played 3 sold out concerts in Reykjavík, later released as the cd/dvd package Alpanon. In the autumn of 2012, the group made the score to the silent movie Days of Grey, which will receive its international premiere in 2013.

Hjaltalín has now completed their third album, Enter 4, which was released in Iceland in December, 2012. The album was praised by both the media and fans in Iceland, receiving a ten out of ten review from the Icelandic National Radio, and an Album of the year award from The Reykjavík Grapevine, which stated that “not only have they made the best Icelandic album of 2012 by a country mile, they’ve gone and created a record that’s probably one of the most searingly bleak and honest record from an Icelandic group in what feels like…forever?” The album is set for an imminent worldwide release in September, 2013.

Lyrics

Sleepdrunk Seasons

Goodbye July / Margt að ugga

Terminal

Suitcase man

Leave your venus for a while
I wanna lie with you
Touch me i’m up for grabs
’cause I feel like god, feel like god, feel like god, feel like god.

Hold me I’m a cloud,
we’ll be a river us two
And it was easy to see,
that you would scream for me, scream for me, scream for me, scream for me.

Feel me i’m soft as moss.
I’m growing into you.
Drinking you as I do dirt.
And that means you’re the lunacy, the lunacy, that means you’re the lunacy!

I’m feeling larger than the sun,
look what you have done!
Our bed is a galaxy.
It’s mass contained in me.
I’m heavy like the void
a star collapsed and destroyed.
Our bed’s a galaxy
so baby come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me.

[…]

Stars are drifting far apart.
You a world and I a moon

Powers of your dreams, could they make me invisible?
If you dare, you could stare through me.
Each drop of you will make a hole through the deep.
I wanna feel touched. I wanna be felt. I wanna be seen. I just want you to hit me.

So hit me. Hit me. Hit me. Don’t wait, just hit me.

A kiss to my thoughts so that they can travel all the way back to you.
Lick my long lost fingers that used to point out empty to you.

A stream from all the men. Like a maternal lovely caress.
Where is this god? A channel for my insanity.
I wanna feel touched. I wanna be felt. I wanna be seen. I just want you to hit me.

So hit me. Hit me. Hit me. Don’t wait, just hit me.

(We are) forever someone else.

He felt like a woman
as he fell from the sky.
He had wanted the throne
but was met with a cry.

I don’t wanna go back.
I don’t wanna go back.

“I found love in myself,
so someone could love me back,
but I don’t see that anybody’s loving me like me.”

“I saw light in the stream,
a serpentine reflection,
I can’t see that nobody’s looking at me, except me.”

Lucifer, light-bearer, you are.

Goodbye July, goodbye.
They can’t divide the sky.

Mouth to mouth we lie,
you’ll sigh my name, you’ll sigh.

We lie here tied in wire,
you’re painted hand in mine,

You’ll spit into my eye,
you’ll kiss my frozen smile.

Because, my name is lame, Elaine.

We’ll try to hold on tight,
if only for the night

Maybe the wind will pass us by,
goodbye July, goodbye

In the streets, in the dark wet space, a suitcase man.

And in the shadow of the shaking, the shaking leaves, a suitcase woman.

A theft of the eyes, a theft of the breath, the photographer, and his bags of faces, and his rock ‘n roll sugar and his bags of faces. He stole it all.

And the photos of the wind will fade away. And the faces in his head will shy away.

The suitcases of stolen eyes, loot of souls with rolling eyes, in windy faces, he stole it all.

And the photos of the wind will fade away And the colours of your eyes will fade away And the faces in his head will shy away.

New Hjaltalín site coming very soon

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Our latest single, We Will Live For Ages

News

Catch our full KEXP performance

Hjaltalín one of “Icelandic Indie bands you don’t want to miss”!

New song, Anyways, released for an Icelandic TV series

Days of Gray wins the Icelandic Music Awards

Days of Gray out on DVD

Show dates

Discography

Terminal

2012

Sleepdrunk Seasons

2007

Enter 4

2013

Biography

Lyrics

Enter 4

Sleepdrunk Seasons

Terminal

Videos

Feels like sugar

Terminal

Traffic Music

Enter 4

Contacts

The Band

Hjaltalin

Press

Chris Stone

Manager

Steinþór Helgi Arnsteinsson