Listening Chamber

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra invites guests to listen to their latest albums in surround sound at Harpa Concert Hall. The listening chamber will be open to the public from 10 AM to 10 PM from Thursday 30 January to Saturday 1 February.

The Iceland Symphony's latest releases, Concurrence and Recurrence, were released by the US label Sono Luminus. Both are recorded in surround sound, with a new orchestra setup devised especially for each piece, based on its particular sound. This results in a unique three-dimensional experience. The sessions were conducted by Daníel Bjarnason, with the recording team of the Grammy-award winning recording engineer Daniel Shores, and producer Dan Merceruio.

Both albums have received high praise from critics. Concurrence, released last November, made several end-of-year lists for one of the best releases of 2019, including The New York Times, NPR, and Second Inversion. The album contains Metacosmos by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Piano Concerto no. 2 by Haukur Tómasson (Víkingur Ólafsson, piano), Oceans by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Quake by Páll Ragnar Pálsson (Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, cello).

The first disc in the series, Recurrence, was selected Best Album (classical) at the Icelandic Music Awards in 2019. That album contains Flow and Fusion by Þuríður Jónsdóttir, BD by Hlynur Aðils Vilmarsson, Aequora by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Emergence by Daníel Bjarnason, and Dreaming by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir. The third and last album in this series will be released in late 2020 and will contain works by Daníel Bjarnason, Þuríður Jónsdóttir, Veronique Vaka, and Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson.

The listening chamber is located in the room Stemma on the first floor of Harpa. It is open from 10 AM to 10 PM from Thursday 30 January to Saturday 1 February. This is a unique opportunity to hear the latest in Icelandic orchestral music in a state-of-the-art surround audio system.