Daníel Hjálmtýsson (IS) / Nouă Ani Lumină

Daníel Hjálmtýsson is… think Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, NIN, Joy Division & QOTSA in a Leonard Cohen afterworld. An endless fiery love story, conflicting with the elements around you and within.

Daníel´s debut as a solo artist came in the wake of 2020 with the dark powerhouse ballad, “Birds”. Curated by Kevin Cole as KEXP´s Song of The Day later that year. Having previously released music via his side-project HYOWLP, Daníel signed with Dutch management company, Thero Agency after the song´s release and a debut EP was scheduled for fall. Bringing in his long-term band (Hálfdán Árnason & Skúli Gíslason) and a group of local and international collaborators, the self-titled EP was released in November, 2020.

The late American rock icon Mark Lanegan then said; “Daníel plays icy neo-goth music which brings to mind the forbidding landscape of his native Iceland. One can imagine him on the stage of a church turned dungeon somewhere in the Reykjavik underbelly.”

Daníel released three singles, “Colouring a Cloud”, “Back to Bed” and “Tabula Rasa” in 2021, along with a music video showcasing Daníel´s homeground during COVID-19, (the East fjörds of Iceland in a slumberland setting).

Daníel´s debut album, LABYRINTHIA, was released on November 11th, 2022 via a digital release and a very special merch desk special; a black satin cassette bag with goodies. Various vinyl will then see a release via the local indie label, Reykjavik Record Shop on March 2nd, 2023 and will feature as the label´s 55th edition.

A re-mastered version of “Birds” is available on cassette and via the Bandcamp release.

Daníel has already released two singles from the album “No Reception” featuring Sólstafir´s Aðalbjörn Tryggvason and the crushing “Soothsayer” seeing radio play in Iceland, United States, Poland, Italy and the Netherlands to name a few.

Icelandic dark rock/post punk act Daníel Hjálmtýsson, releases its debut album on November 11th. The album will be released digitally and on special edition mono cassettes at first with multiple vinyl versions available from March 2023 via the local indie label Reykjavik Record Shop.

The impact of Icelandic nature is very strong both in the artwork and within the music.

The album includes a mixture of international guests with Sólstafir´s Aðalbjörn Tryggvason and the magical Elín Ey each vocalizing Icelandic poems that Daníel wrote into two of the songs with them especially in mind. Belgian multi-instrumentalists Aldo Struyf and Fred Lyenn Jacques then also feature on two songs.

Nouă Ani Lumină

” / is the ‘place’ where we deviate as much as we can and jump off the rails of reality. For us it’s a kind of VR where we can experience strange scenarios. I have often received the question “What does Nouă Ani Lumină means?”. It is a distance that we cannot comprehend with our minds. Everyone knows what light years means, but no one actually conceives of the term.

That’s what we’re looking for in music, sounds that are more difficult to conceive. We try to convey the strange and the phantasmagoric through sound waves.

Many times we want to run away from the earth, as far as possible from worldly things and Nine Light Years is our mantra through which we travel unimaginable distances.”

Members: Bogdan Crețu: guitar & voice / Silvan Plăcintă: drums & percussion