MOONBOW is Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson’s second album, the first to be released on a major label. The music, performed by leading representatives of the Icelandic contemporary music scene, was recorded at Kaldalón and Norðurljós, the two concert halls of Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall. While Gunnar’s first album Patterns contains pieces from his years studying and freelancing in The Hague, MOONBOW is a selection of more mature works from a fruitful period in the composer’s life after he returned to Iceland in 2009, with all the experiences from the Netherlands in his pocket. The album contains a trio, a quartet and a quintet, flanked by two larger ensemble pieces. The works are diverse, not only in terms of instrumentation, but also in terms of musical theme, and provide a good insight into Gunnar’s distinctive and personal sound world.

With his sensitive intuition, Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson has developed a unique and personal style over the years. Typical of his music are unfolding processes, passages that move fluidly from one texture to another and alternate between contrasting moods. Another characteristic is strictly constructed, multi-layered, continuous movements in which musical elements are brought to the fore and removed again through instrumentation and articulation. Another characteristic feature is the textures woven from rhythmic and melodic patterns that seem like patchwork.

Gunnar has been described as a “strong Icelandic voice with a fresh and bold imagination.” His music has been praised as lively and inventive, highly original, pleasantly coherent, purposefully constructed, and full of mysticism and magical power.