Biography
Surely one of music’s best-kept secrets, composer and producer Snorri Hallgrímsson boasts an impressive list of credits as a solo artist, film composer and as a collaborator on a wide variety of projects, including the BAFTA-award winning score for ‘Broadchurch’ alongside Ólafur Arnalds.
Growing up in a strong Icelandic choral tradition, Snorri began his career as a classical guitarist before falling in love with film music in his teens and going on to study composition at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and at Berklee College of Music.
His debut solo album, ‘Orbit’, was released in 2018 — two years after he returned to Iceland having lived away in Spain and Mexico — and traces the journey of living in such vastly different environments. Nevertheless, it’s characterized by a healthy dose of Icelandic melancholy, fed with electronic undercurrents.
The double EP 'Landbrot': an introspective and personal collection of instrumental pieces for piano and strings, was released in 2020-2021. Among more recent projects are two collaborations with renowned record label Deutsche Grammophon: reworks of Erik Satie’s 'Avant-dernières pensées: I. Idylle', and Víkingur Ólafsson’s performance of Schumann’s ‘Vogel als Prophet’.
The highly anticipated ‘I Am Weary, Don’t Let Me Rest’ is Snorri’s latest solo album, released in June 2023. The album received 3 nominations at the Icelandic Music Awards and won 1 for Best Album Production.
In his music, Snorri is able to find ways to balance emotion without invoking overdramatic exuberance. His string arrangements, informed by his early and continued involvement in choral singing, are deeply atmospheric — a talent that is extended to his ever-growing list of film credits.
by Cheryl Ang
