Icelandic Guitarist & Composer, Gulli Björnsson, Visits GSI to Record Six of His Original Compositions.

Gulli Björnsson has recently visited Southern California to record at GSI and tonebase some of compositions, including his recent work – “Landslög” [Landscapes].
Landslög is a set of 11 pieces for solo guitar drawing inspiration from Icelandic landscapes. The pieces are composed through repetitive patterns and get progressively more difficult. All “landscapes” are accompanied by original visual animations that were created by Gulli by processing various images and stock videos put together through pixel processing and interactive shaders.

Gulli is a guitarist and composer from Iceland whose music typically ties electronics, instruments and visuals to experiences in nature. Gulli’s music has been described as “hypnotic” (News Gazette),  “a knockout – wondrously inventive”  (Soundboard Magazine) and “modern, occasionally discordant, but still accessible” (Classical Guitar Magazine).

Currently, Gulli Björnsson is a candidate for the Ph.D. degree in composition at Princeton University. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts degrees from Yale School of Music. His primary teachers were David Leisner, Ben Verdery and Konrad Kaczmarek.

If you like his “Landslög” pieces, you can download a PDF with music sheet for free from Gulli’s website. Over there, you can also buy a physical copy of the music and have it shipped to your home. If you’re interested, email Gulli directly at [email protected].

You can also access the series of tutorials available on tonebase, to learn directly from Gulli how to play these pieces.

During his second recording session at GSI, Gulli recorded the following pieces on six different guitars: “Landslag I. Dökkar sandþúfur með smá mosa” [Dark Sand Dunes With Some Moss] on a 2020 Teodoro Perez “Antigua” SP/AR, “Landslag VI. Grjóthrun úr Fjalli” [Fallen Rocks from a Mountain] on a 2008 Peter Tsiorba SP/CY, “Landslag VIII. Víðfeðmur Akur Hulinn Af Lúpínu” [Vast Lupine Covered Field] on a 2020 Valerio Licari CD/IN, “Landslag IX. Veðruð Ísilögð Strandlengja” [Eroded Icy Shoreline] on a 2018 Yulong Guo CD/IN, “Landslag XI. Sprænur Og Ár Í Kapp Niður Gil” [Streams and Rivers Race Down Canyons] on a 2020 Sebastian Stenzel CD/CSAR, and “Prelude No. 1 (La Munia)” on a 2001 Dake Traphagen CD/IN. We’d recommend listening to each “landscape” together with a corresponding visual animation in the right column below. Under the titles, you’ll find Gulli’s description of each “landscape”.

“Landslag I. Dökkar sandþúfur með smá mosa” [Dark Sand Dunes With Some Moss]

The repetitive triplets made me think of the black sand beaches and vistas in the southeast of Iceland. There you can find ‘sandþúfur’ and ‘sandöldur’, which are these small sand dunes that sometimes have green moss and grass at their peaks, kind of like a green beanie.

“Landslag VI. Grjóthrun úr Fjalli” [Fallen Rocks from a Mountain]

The tragic sentimental atmosphere of the piece is in my view perfectly captured by fallen rocks from a mountain, now sitting scattered over the grass overlooking their previous epic place where they were part of the mountain.

“Landslag VIII. Víðfeðmur Akur Hulinn Af Lúpínu” [Vast Lupine Covered Field]

This piece has a fun and happy energy to it and for some reason it made me think of the Alaskan lupine that was introduced into the Icelandic flora in 1945 to bind the loose sandy soil that was eroding some areas in Iceland and causing mudslides. Lupine can now be found everywhere in Iceland, but there is much controversy about the plant as some think it is an invasive foreign plant that is ruining the pristine and sensitive Icelandic flora while others are happy that it grows where nothing else can; and find the purple and white lupine covered fields and mountain slopes a welcome and colorful sight.

“Landslag IX. Veðruð Ísilögð Strandlengja” [Eroded Icy Shoreline]

The somber, sad atmosphere of the piece reminded me of shoreline with cliffs that are eroding by the ocean; reaching the endpoint of their existences as land and becoming sand.

“Landslag XI. Sprænur Og Ár Í Kapp Niður Gil” [Streams and Rivers Race Down Canyons]

As I was composing this piece I had this image of streams and rivers falling down cliffs and canyons in the mountains. They always seem to be in some sort of a hurry, like they are racing each other to the bottom.

“Prelude No. 1 (La Munia)”

These four preludes are dedicated to my teacher at Yale, the extraordinary guitarist and composer Benjamin Verdery.
During the 4 years I composed these pieces, I developed an obsession for musical minimalism. I would describe the preludes as a collection of minimalist works that explore the tonal resonance of the guitar, focusing on the beauty of harmony and basic counterpoint through obsessive, repetitive arpeggio patterns. I decided to dedicate the preludes to glaciers that vanished during this century. However, it is important to know that these preludes are pure music, and the music is not intended to represent or illustrate these glaciers in any way.
The Preludes can be played acoustically without electronics or amplified/ processed through a Max-patch with electronic soundscapes. I find both presentations valid.

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