2025 blew the scale for released music prominently featuring halldorophone (and close relatives).
These two albums have Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris as a common denominator. Thanos owns a "halldorobass", a double bass modified to use the halldorophone method for feedback. He puts it to good use.
High recommend on both of these excellent albums.
Throughout five sessions at Sound Arguments (@sound_arguments ), we’ll have a total of ten guest artists and scholars acting as facilitators for discussions, running workshops, listening sessions and more. Let’s meet them!
Halldór Úlfarsson (@halldorophone ) is an experimental luthier and inventor of the halldorophone, an electro-acoustic instrument for working with feedbacking strings. A visual artist by training, Halldór’s interest is focused on the conditions allowing musicians to develop deep relationships with their instruments and the institutions facilitating these relationships. Halldór holds a BFA and MFA in Fine Art in time based media, an MFA in Product Design and is a PhD dropout. He is currently the resident instrument maker and fabricator at Intelligent Instruments Lab at the University of Iceland.
Read more about all guests and register for the event with the link at the @sound_arguments bio, or at www.orpheusintituut.be
🗓️ Deadline: January 4th 2026. No extension! Set the reminder!
Sound Arguments is a partnership between Orpheus Instituut (@orpheusinstitute ) and ACPA (@acpa_leiden )
Photo by Myrto Grigoriou (@myrtoi )
Open Lab 114: Halldorophone?
Tomorrow’s open lab will be centered around the Halldorophone!
Screening of the short mocumentary, Halldorophone? by Nikulás Tumi Hlynsson ( @nikulastumi ).
"A journey exploring the Halldorophone, a search for its creator and the encounter of the inevitable nonsense surrounding this odd instrument."
And a brief showcase of Halldór Úlfarssons latest halldorophone build before it leaves Iceland to go live with it's owner in France.
Discussion with Halldór after the screening and demo.
More info: https://iil.is/openlab/114
Where: University of Iceland. Edda, room: E-208
When: 3 - 5 PM
We look forward to seeing you!
Free entry, accessible to all.
This halldorophone took a while to make.
Working out of my temporary studio at the Reykjavík Association of Sculptors and retooling to do some of the work which has previously been subcontracted to others, like the aluminum anodizing and electronics assembly. But I also took the time to experiment with some new materials and methods, like 3D-printed titanium for selected details and successfully reducing the total weight of the instrument by sourcing a new speaker cone with some clever engineering.
The result is an excellent halldorophone which will be living in Paris in good hands.
There is vinyl in the air.
OSMIUM - OSMIUM
In a strange moment of confluence it looks like there will be 4 vinyl releases prominently featuring halldorophone this year.
This one is powerhouse in many a sense, and particularly close to the heart. Hard recommend!
/interviews/osmium-interview/
Halldór Úlfarsson’s @halldorophone gives us the chance to engage in the loop, tailored to the “tactile perception” of the human experience. While we can study and perceive feedback in nature or mathematics, here we can reach out and touch it.
No wonder then that the halldorophone has become an object of fascination. By amplifying the vibrations of a cellos’ strings, it generates a distinctively stirring yet unstable sound that calls out to composers and musicians. Its inherent appeal has been fuelled with considerable oxygen from high-profile use in Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Academy Award-winning score for Joker and recordings from drone metal lords Sunn O)))—rarely does such an innovative new instrument reach such broad attention.
In conversation with Úlfarsson, we unpack the questions raised by introducing embedded computing to the halldorophone: do we disappear behind its existing character while providing increased stability and performance options for the user? Or use it as a starting point for DSP-based composition? We also cast an eye on the various processing techniques being explored by halldorophone users while covering the development of its fabrication over time and the ideas underlying its evolution and ideas.
Interview link in bio ⚒️
#bela #belaplatform #halldorophone #augmentedinstruments #cello #hildurguðnadóttir #feedback #belamini
It is harvest time! This very good record with works for solo halldorophone by Martina Bertoni just released on Karlrecords:
/album/electroacoustic-works-for-halldorophone
Made at EMS during a period when an experimental version of the halldorophone was in residence there for over a year.
I was expecting a cassette release and was very excited to receive it as a double LP as well! Högna is intrigued by the cassette though and we will make a point to listen to it on this "mysterious" medium together when we get a chance.
This just dropped! A full LP of music for solo halldorophone performed by Julía Mogensen in collaboration with composer Þuríður Jónsdóttir.
We consider it a rare privilege to be a destination in the mysterious travels of President Bongo.
Check out the rest of this unique series (including this release) here:
/
And Högna approves! I sense a spiritual kinship with Silvana Boni who graces the cover, an old world soul who lived a thing or two in her time…
@eydisek will play the @halldorophone on Tuesday night 20:00 at @mengi_iceland for IIL Diffractive Sonic Dialogues.
Eydís Kvaran is a string instrumentalist, improvisational composer and artist. Originally a violinist and songwriter, she has been a part of experimental projects such as the band Ólafur Kram (2019-) and collaboration with Intelligent Instrument Labs (IIL) as both composer and performer since 2022. As an improvising musician with a strong emphasis on curiosity and discovering untrodden paths, Eydís has found a kindred spirit within these new instruments. They have become a strong part of her artistic work, notably in the single Lampinn (2023) and multiple performances on the Dorophone, an instrument created by artist and designer Halldór Úlfarsson. In her work, Eydís focuses on landscape, danger and limits through music and film. #instrumentdesign #intelligentinstruments #halldorophone
Composer @privatonicola is investigating the IIL-halldorophone. Our friend @eydisek played a little study running his patch which we recorded for @designboom who did a feature on the instrument and our work at the @intelligentinstruments Lab.
Filmed and edited by Rafn Rafnsson at Háskóli Íslands.
signboom.com/technology/cello-electro-acoustic-string-instrument-halldorophone-feedback-halldor-ulfarsson-07-26-2024/
