Stebbi Jak builds new album through close collaboration

Stebbi Jak made his second solo album, “Líttu í kringum þig”, with more than 20 musicians and other collaborators he admires, mbl.is reports. He discussed the project on the Dagmál programme.

“These are instrumentalists, arrangers and all kinds of people, and it is incredibly enjoyable,” Stebbi said. He made half of the songs with Halldór Gunnar of Fjallabræður, in what he describes as working “at the desk” as a small two-person team.

For one song, the pair recorded percussion together on Halldór’s desk, using the coffee cups on it as instruments because they liked the sound and wanted to preserve it.

Another song, “Svefndrungi”, was recorded in an old house built by Stebbi’s great-grandfather. His grandparents lived there, and his father grew up there. The house contains a foot-operated harmonium, an instrument once found on many farms.

Stebbi brought in Eyþór Ingi Jónsson, formerly an organist at Akureyri Church, and his friend Hauk Pálmarsson to record in the house this spring. Stormy weather was raging outside, and the recording captured the creaking floor and the sounds of the instrument.

Stebbi also recorded his vocals in a small room in the house. A small choir from Akureyri, Kór Hymnodia, was recorded at the small church in Innbær, Akureyri. The creaking of the floorboards as people moved around was also left on the recording.

Stebbi said the most enjoyable part of making music was working on songs that were not yet finished, allowing everyone involved to add something and shape the result.

“It is very much about trust, that I can cast my feelings onto you and get something back,” he said. “I do not care where something good comes from. It is not about me having to be credited for it or own it. We are simply making a song, and then some kind of magic appears.”

Stebbi Jak will celebrate the album’s release with concerts at Græni hatturinn in Akureyri on Friday, August 21, and at Bæjarbíó in Hafnarfjörður on Friday, September 4.