Total Immersion: Icelandic Chill - Soundworlds
19:00
Sun 22 Feb 2026
Barbican, London
Icelandic composers are creating sounds like no-one has ever heard, while record labels such as ReykjavÃk’s Bedroom Community channel a very Icelandic vibe, and take it global. From Bára GÃsladóttir genre-bending bass concerto Hringla (performed by the composer) to the poetic soundscapes of DanÃel Bjarnason, everything in this concert is new to the UK.
The atmospheric soundworlds of Ólafur Arnalds and Valgeir Sigurðsson are familiar from TV and movies, but in Iceland, everyone stands on shifting ground. Two major new works take us into the heart of the modern Icelandic imagination: stunning, rarely-seen outtakes from the movie Dreamland merge with Sigurðsson’s music to evoke a natural world as fragile as it is beautiful.