Kjartan Sveinsson (; born 2 January 1978) is an Icelandic musician who is the

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

for the

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

band

Sigur Rós Sigur Rós () is an Icelandic post-rock band that formed in 1994 in Reykjavík. It comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Jónsi, Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal soun ...

. He joined the band in 1998. A

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments, often but not exclusively at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as woodwind doubler, doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and mor ...

, he has also played such instruments as the

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

tin whistle The tin whistle, also known as the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, a class of instrument which also includes the recorder and Native American flute. A tin whistle player is called a whistl ...

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

, as well as many of the unorthodox instruments that contribute to

's distinctive sound.

Career

Kjartan has performed under the pseudonym "The Lonesome Traveller" with Sigur Rós bandmate Orri Páll Dýrason and

Amiina Amiina (formerly Amína, stylized in lowercase) is an Icelandic band composed of members Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir, Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson. In the past they have frequent ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir (whom Kjartan married in 2001). "The Lonesome Traveller" covered

songs acoustically in an

alt-country Alternative country (commonly abbreviated to alt-country; also known as alternative country rock, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative) is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that diffe ...

style. Kjartan also composed scores for the 2005

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nominated short film Síðasti bærinn (''The Last Farm'') by

Rúnar Rúnarsson Rúnar Rúnarsson (born 20 January 1977 in Reykjavík) is an Icelandic screenwriter and director. He graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2009. His credits include the feature film ''Volcano'' and the short films ''Anna'', ...

, for award-winning director

Ramin Bahrani Ramin Bahrani (; born March 20, 1975) is an American Film director, director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert ranked Bahrani's Chop Shop (film), ''Chop Shop'' (2007) as the sixth-best film of the 2000s, calling him "the new director of ...

's 2009 short film ''Plastic Bag'' which features the narration of filmmaker

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...

, and for the 2009 film '' Ondine'' directed by

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish filmmaker and writer. He first achieved recognition for his short story collection, ''Night in Tunisia (short story collection), Night in Tunisia,'' which won the Guardian Fiction Prize in ...

. Kjartan was the composer on Volcano (2011) and Sparrow (2015) both directed by

. Kjartan also contributes to

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

l and string arrangements, along with the group

. He is also featured heavily on The Album Leaf's album, '' In a Safe Place'', playing a wide variety of instruments. Kjartan is a member of the advisory board for Kraumur Music Fund, which aims to "strengthen Icelandic musical life, primarily by supporting young musicians in performing and presenting their works." On 16 November 2010 Kjartan Sveinsson performed in The Whitelight Festival, along with Jonsi & Alex and The Hilliard Ensemble. Kjartan composed Sonnets of his own, as well as the world premiere of his new piece entitled Credo. The performance was streamed live on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's website. On 17 April 2011 Q2 - a listener-supported, New York City-based Internet stream devoted to the music of living composers - along with NPR named Kjartan Sveinsson in a list of "100 Composers Under 40". In a post on Sigur Rós's

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page announcing an "ask me anything" Q&A session with fans via the social news website

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

on 24 January 2013, the band referred to themselves as being a "now three-piece band." The band confirmed Kjartan Sveinsson's departure during a

Q&A session, stating that "...he has left the band. He said he spent half his life in the band and it was time to do something different." On 19 February 2014 Kjartan showcased 'his most ambitious musical work' since leaving the band in the form of a collaborative theatre set-piece with Iceland's acclaimed contemporary artist, Ragnar Kjartansson. The work, titled ''Der Klang Der Offenbarung Des Göttlichen (The Sounds of the Revelation of the Divine)'' was performed at Berlin’s

Volksbühne The Volksbühne ("People's Theatre") is a theater in Berlin. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Rosa Luxemburg Square) in what was the GDR's capital. It has been called Berlin's most iconic theatre. About The V ...

theatre, in cooperation with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg and the Filmchor Berlin. In February 2015, Kjartan Sveinsson again collaborated with Ragnar Kjartansson, being involved in a performance art exhibition at the John Curtin Gallery and the Fremantle Arts Centre in Perth, Australia. On 14 February 2022, Sigur Rós made a social media post announcing Kjartan was returning to the band.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sveinsson, Kjartan 1978 births Living people Kjartan Sveinsson Kjartan Sveinsson 21st-century keyboardists Kjartan Sveinsson Rock oboists fi:Kjartan Sveinsson