Icelandic composers have played a defining role in shaping neoclassical and modern classical music over the past two decades. From intimate piano works to cinematic soundscapes, a distinct musical language has emerged from Reykjavík and beyond.
Often rooted in minimalism and influenced by ambient and post-rock, this music reflects both landscape and atmosphere. Artists such as Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ólafur Arnalds and Hildur Guðnadóttir have helped define a sound that moves fluidly between genres and disciplines.
What Defines Icelandic Neoclassical Music?
Much of the Icelandic sound is shaped by repetition, space and atmosphere. Many composers come from indie, electronic or experimental backgrounds, and often move between studio albums and film work, creating a more cinematic approach to modern classical music.
Despite its global reach, this scene emerged from a small and tightly connected artistic community. Reykjavík became a hub where composers developed a shared language shaped as much by environment as by tradition.
Here are five records that capture the spirit of Icelandic neoclassical and modern classical music.
Listen to the article's playlist as you read:
Jóhann Jóhannsson: »Virðulegu Forsetar« (2004)
One of Jóhannsson’s first works to garner international acclaim, this hour-long piece in four parts is based on the principles of Minimal Music, repeating a single brass phrase, then slowing it down and adding drones, shifting its pitch and mood completely over its duration.
His first album Englabörn, released two years prior, contained chamber music songs of shorter duration. This album is more of a longform experience, designed to be taken in fully, in one sitting.
The premiere of Virðulegu Forsetar happened in the same Rejkjavik cathedral where the album recordings took place. The show finished during sunset, and during the piece, helium balloons descended slowly from the cathedral’s roof into the crowd. Can you imagine a more beautiful image?
Hildur Guðnadóttir: »Saman« (2014)
Before she broke through in the soundtrack world with her major works on TV series like Chernobyl and films like Joker, Hildur Guðnadóttir released a few solo albums centered around her droning cello compositions.
On her fourth solo record Saman (Icelandic for “together”), she presented sparse compositions for cello, synthesizer and her voice. All three elements often blur together and get drowned in reverb, creating an ethereal wall of sound. The songs bear references of folk and classical music, ending up “somewhere between Björk and Bach”, as an anonymous internet commenter aptly wrote. Now what’s more Icelandic than that?
Ólafur Arnalds: »Island Songs« (2016)
For this gorgeous body of work, Island Songs, the composer Ólafur Arnalds traveled to seven different villages and towns across Iceland, meeting local artists to create and perform an entirely new song every time. The project was documented via audio and video recordings in real-time and released on a DVD with the final album.
Collaborating with poets, musicians, choirs, orchestras and singers, Arnalds managed to paint a vivid audio-visual portrait of Iceland’s landscape, cultural history and contemporary music scene. A heartfelt dedication to his home country – and one of the most captivating musical pieces to come out of Iceland in past decades.
Gabriel Ólafs: »Solon Islandus« (2022)
A young composer from Kópavogur but now based in Reykjavik, Gabríel Ólafs burst upon the contemporary classical scene with his first two albums Absent Minded and Piano Works. For his Decca debut Solo Islandus, he composed a body of work inspired by the Icelandic folk poet Davíð Stefánsson.
Ólafs’ father read him these poems when he was a child. They contain elements which the composer calls "otherworldly" and that we might associate with Icelandic nature. Ólafs aptly describes this album as a “multimedia window to the past and future of my homeland”.
Vikingur Ólafsson: »From Afar« (2022)
Here award-winning, celebrated pianist Víkingur Ólafsson reflects childhood memories of growing up in Iceland. The album, which was recorded on a Steinway grand piano, and then again on an upright piano, includes compositions by Bach, Schumann, Brahms, Mozart, Bartók, and Hungarian composer György Kurtag.
Inspired by the nature and the people of his home country, as well as a personal encounter with Kurtag in Budapest, the emotive performance explores similarities between Kurtag’s aesthetic and the Nordic tradition represented by this Icelandic folk song, written by composer Snorri Sigfús Birgisson.
by Stephan Kunze
Discover More Neoclassical and Modern Classical Music
Explore more features on minimal music and the roots of neoclassical, as well as our history of ambient music series.
You can also discover artists such as Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ólafur Arnalds and Hildur Guðnadóttir in more detail across grains.
Selected releases from these composers and more are available in the grains store.