I’m Halldór Eldjárn and I compose music, invent instruments and make software.
My passion and focus lies on the intersection of human expression and inventing systems that assist the creation of art.
Started playing the drums at a young age, but was soon writing my own music and forming bands. The most notable band being my electro-pop band Sykur founded in 2008. Sykur has released three albums, the newest is the 2019 release JÁTAKK.
The album Poco Apollo, which is my first release as a solo artist, is originally an online generative music piece. It takes images from NASA’s photo library from the moon landings, and converts them in to ambient soundscapes. On the album I have made arrangements for string quartet, percussion and electronics, for a few of those songs. The result is programmatically generated music interpreted by humans.
I have written several pieces for ensembles, orchestras and string quartets which have been performed in Iceland.
In collaboration with prominent Icelandic artists Björk and Ólafur Arnalds I created tools aimed at bringing computer generation in to the artist’s creations. The tools and techniques developed have touring the world since, used on multiple recordings and released as the software STRATUS by Spitfire Audio.
In 2021 I founded the company Inorganic Audio focused on creating audio software for creative musicians. Our first release is Liquid, a live granulator plugin.
Let’s get in touch! Feel free to drop me a line at halldor(at)eldjarn.is