Ríkharður H. Friðriksson

Following a career as a rock musician, Ríkharður H. Friðriksson (1960) studied composition at Reykjavík College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Accademia Chigiana and the Royal Dutch Conservatory, also attending the Institute of Sonology. His teachers were Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Elias Tanenbaum, Franco Donatoni and Clarence Barlow.

Apart from a period teaching at Aalborg University, he has lived in Reykjavik, teaching at Iceland Academy of the Arts, Kopavogur Computer Music Centre and Reykjavik College of Music. He has received several working grants from the Icelandic government, the DV cultural prize, and a mention in the Bourges sound art competition.

His music falls into two general categories. On one hand he makes pure electro-acoustic music, working mostly with natural sounds and their movement in space. On the other hand he does live electric guitar improvisations, processing the sound with live electronics. In that field he either appears alone or with the Icelandic Sound Company.
 
Brons (Bronze) is made totally out of the sounds of gongs and tam-tams. An incredibly varying and fascinating sound-world can be achieved, just by playing the instruments. Subsequently, the sounds were processed in a computer in various ways, mainly with systems constructed out of ever-changing delay lines.

Brons was composed at the Kopavogur Computer Music Centre between 2003 and 2004. The current version is a more compact revision and remix done at home in the summer of 2008.

www.ismennt.is/not/rhf/