June 13, 2024 - Renowned guitarist, composer, and tonebase artist Gulli Bjornsson has just released an album containing brand new performance recordings of his suite of pieces for classical guitar, titled Landslög.
The collection, which is 11 movements long, is inspired by various Icelandic landscapes, from dark sand dunes to rivers running down mountains. The pieces were even recorded in Bjornsson’s parents’ cabin at the peak of winter.
While the compositions are very evocative, the pieces themselves are excellent studies in classical guitar performance practices, with each piece exploring different rhythmic patterns and difficulties.
These pieces were originally commissioned by tonebase, to go along with his extensive course on the pieces:
More information about his course can be found here.
And if you’d like to take a peek at the score, a free copy can be downloaded here.
About the pieces
As mentioned earlier, Bjornsson’s work comprises 11 unique, standalone pieces. Here is a breakdown of the meaning behind each piece.
Landslag I. – dökkar sandþúfur með smá mosa // dark sand dunes with some moss
The piece features a repetitive triplet figure in the right hand while the left had moves through different chords, creating a single long phrase. The piece is great for working on both left and right hand positions that will enable you to get the most resonance out of your instrument.
Landslag II. – leira í botni fjarðar // littoral mud in the bottom of a fjord
The piece is presented in two sections with the same chord progression, the first in block chords while the second time we get arpeggiated chords and a simple melody.
Landslag III. – grjóti þakin háslétta // rock covered plateau
The piece features a bass line melody that is great for working on your thumb strokes while maintaining lightly plucked accompinamental figures in the higher strings.
Landslag IV. – lækjarsprænur í grænum dal // river creeks in a green valley
This contrapuntal piece is composed using different rhythmic cells in each voice, creating rhythmic and harmonic variety. If you’ve never worked on polyrhythms this is a fun piece to get familiar with the concept.
Landslag V. – birkikjarr í fjallshlíð // birch shrubs in a mountain slope
The piece provides a great opportunity to implement a variety of ornaments and techniques very organically. A single line opens up the piece and is developed in fugal fashion to present a simple, yet musically and technically gratifying piece of music.
Landslag VI. – grjóthrun úr fjalli // fallen rocks from a mountain
In this lesson, Gulli gives an overview and breakdown of Landslag VI: fallen rocks from a mountain. This gentle and lonely piece is written in the key of C minor, giving a rare opportunity for the guitarist to read in a flat key.
Landslag VII. – ólga við ós // turbulence where a stream meets a lake
This minimalist-inspired piece makes use of repeated arpeggios as the right hand moves through various positions to create gradual changes in color.
Landslag VIII. –víðfeðmur akur hulinn af lúpínu // vast lupine covered field
This piece is almost entirely composed of a two against three polyrhythm within alternating 4/4 to 3/4 time signatures. This energetic and driving piece is broken down into rhythmic and block chord exercises, making for an easy approach to a complex piece.
Landslag IX. – veðruð ísilögð strandlengja // eroded icy shoreline
The piece creates peaks meant to represent cliffs eroding into the shorelines. The main melody continuously climbs above the twelfth fret over a repeating chord progression.
Landslag X. – klaki og snjór hylur tún // ice and snow covers a field
This delicate piece is entirely composed using open string harmonics, giving the piece a very icy quality. The piece presents an excellent opportunity to work on articulating harmonics clearly.
Landslag XI. – sprænur og ár í kapp niður gil // streams and rivers race down canyons
This virtuosic piece makes extensive use of cross-string scales, a technique that places consecutive notes on adjacent strings, allowing the right hand to essentially play arpeggio patterns to perform a musical line.
About the recording
While the compositions carry so many “natural” qualities on their own, Bjornsson went the extra mile to transport himself into the icy atmosphere of Iceland so that the recordings themselves can be true to their origin.
Bjornsson recorded these works in his parents’ cabin in Iceland in the dead of winter, and at moments in the music you can even hear crackles from a fire as he kept himself warm during the recording sessions.
The entire album was recorded on a 2010 Renaud Galabert guitar with one AKG C414 microphone and Scarlett 4i4 soundcard, and to preserve the natural audio artifacts that occurred during the recording, he opted for long or sometimes even single takes of each of the pieces.
The entire album was fully recorded, mixed and mastered by Bjornsson.
To listen to this album, head on over to his Bandcamp and Payhip profile:
Bandcamp:
https://gullibjornsson.bandcamp.com/album/landsl-g
Payhip:
For more of Bjornssons works, head on over to his website and browse his scores, recordings, performance videos, and more:
https://www.gullibjornsson.org/compositions2
And lastly if you’d like to learn how to play these pieces, sign up for a free 14-day trial to tonebase and hear how to approach them from the composer yourself!
