Harpa Award 2020 Nominees – Gyða Valtýsdóttir – Iceland

SoundTrackFest, in collaboration with Nordic Film Music Days, brings you a series of exclusive articles with videos of the nominees for the HARPA Award 2020.

Nordic Film Music Days

The first video is about the Icelandic composer Gyða Valtýsdóttir, nominated for her soundtrack for the movie ‘Mihkel’.

 

Description:

The score of the film Mihkel by Gyða Valtýsdóttir forms an integral part and can even be described as the lynchpin of the film. Gyða manages to create her own powerful sonic identity, which serves the story perfectly, while elevating the whole film. In a story based on dark and true events, the music adds to the film a more human and warmer feeling. Gyda also brilliantly succeeds with her music to build a bridge between the two worlds where the story takes place, Iceland and Estonia.

 

Comment from Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon, the director of Mihkel:

From the first day that I meet Gyda, 15 years ago, I felt that she was a musical genius and I was just waiting for the right moment for us to collaborate. Filmmaking is a huge marathon and it was many years later when I had written this script Mihkel when I saw her again. By total accident I went to a concert by Gyda. There she was performing like a beautiful creature from an unknown planet, this was the sound and mood I had been looking for. I asked her after the concert if we could meet for a coffee, due to that I had a film coming up. I gave her the script, she liked it and then the real work began. It was wonderful to work with her, so amazing, she is a hard working composer full of beautiful ideas, and here we are today.

 

Watch the full video here:

Nominee-film: Interview, camera & edit by Tine Louise Kortermand

 

You can read more about Nordic Film Music Days & Harpa Award 2020 here:

http://soundtrackfest.com/en/news/nordic-film-music-days-harpa-award-2020/

 

Official website:

http://www.nordicfilmmusicdays.com/