Halldór Eldjárn to perform with a mysterious Icelandic electronic instrument

Musician and artist Halldór Eldjárn will present a concert-performance featuring an electronic instrument he built from an invention by Magnús Karvel Guðnason, Morgunblaðið reports.

Eldjárn said he believes the instrument may be Iceland’s first electronic instrument and possibly among the earliest in the world. He has spent the past year inventing and building electric instruments, and will perform at Tjarnarbíó on October 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available through tix.is.

The hour-long performance will combine original music with speaking and demonstrations. Eldjárn hopes to give the audience an insight into the unusual world he has chosen to inhabit. Visitors will also be able to look at the objects after the show.

Eldjárn is a percussionist by training and studied at FÍH. He has also studied composition in recent years, writing works for chamber ensembles. He founded the band Sykur, which has released three albums.

He studied computer science and works as a programmer, largely on his own projects. He runs an audio technology company and has worked with musicians including Björk, Ólafur Arnalds and Dustin O’Halloran on projects using technology in live art. He said his work in this field began long before artificial intelligence became widely available.