Education
He plays keyboards, bass, percussion, electronics/programming and studied classical guitar, graduating with a Tonmeister degree from London"s Society of Automotive Engineers Institute.
He plays keyboards, bass, percussion, electronics/programming and studied classical guitar, graduating with a Tonmeister degree from London"s Society of Automotive Engineers Institute.
Coming from a musical background Valgeir"s fascination with recording technology lead to a job in a small recording studio at the age of 16. In 1998 Valgeir was hired by fellow countrywoman Björk as engineer and programmer on the soundtrack for Lars Von Trier"s Dancer in the Dark. Valgeir created the distinctive train-rhythm that runs through the song.
His working relationship with Björk continued beyond the film project and was consistent from early 1998 until 2006, during which time Valgeir was one of her main studio collaborators.
In 2005 he founded the Bedroom Community record label launching the recording career of Nico Muhly and producing and releasing albums by Ben Frost and Sam Amidon. He has composed music for television, film and theatre and his debut solo album Ekvílibríum was released by Bedroom Community in 2007, followed by a release of his soundtrack for Dreamland (Draumalandið) in 2010.
The score of Dreamland was performed live in 2011 by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2012, and the British Broadcasting Corporation Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov, in 2013. His first conventional classical commission, Nebraska Quartet was premiered by the Chiara String Quartet at Lincoln Center during New York City’s Ecstatic Music Festival in 2011.
Valgeir’s third LP Architecture of Loss was released in September 2012 to critical acclaim.
Ghosts, for chamber ensemble, was the result of a commission the Crash, and launched in Dublin in November 2013. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Mickelthwate premiered Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Five, for orchestra and electronics, as part of its annual New Music Festival in January 2014.