Tumi Árnason

His 2019 record, ALLT ER ÓMÆLIÐ, was the first duo release from saxophonist Tumi Árnason and drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen (ADHD). The record, inspired by Greek proto-philosopher Anaximanders’ ideas about conceptual abstraction, contains a set of free improvisations and open compositions revolving around the idea of the indefinite; the nature of improvisation, structures that exist but are only hinted at, the space between sounds.

Tumi Árnason's latest release is Hlýnun (2021), a piece that addresses our current existential threat, the climate crisis, through free jazz and experimental improvisation. Accompanying Tumi are bassist Skúli Sverrisson, drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and keyboardist Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson.

Hlýnun invites the listener into a dynamic ecosystem. Four instruments orbit each other, trade ideas and create vital soundscapes. A living multiplicity that grows and flourishes, gains balance but is threatened by an ever advancing hegemony. Songs of extinct birds are unveiled through melodies and a requiem for life itself bursts out of the organ. Man’s diagrams and machinery invade the composition, rousing intensities and endangering its unity. Members are lost in the commotion, the ecosystem regresses and becomes an apocalyptic ambiance, hiss and silence.

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