Hyldýpi
Heilun
Heilun
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PITP6 |
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ARTIST:
Hyldýpi ALBUM NAME: Heilun CATALOGUE NUMBER: PITP65 RELEASE DATE: 30 April 2025 |
FORMAT:
DISTRIBUTION: Past Inside the Present Bandcamp (US), PITP.US (US), Norman Records (UK), Juno Records (UK), Phonica (UK), HHV (DE), Soundohm (IT), Tobira Records (JP), Linus Records (JP), Redeye (UK), and others PUBLISHING: © 2025 Past Inside the Present ℗ 2025 Past Inside the Present Publishing (BMI) CREDITS: Written, recorded and produced by Hyldýpi (Herbert Már Sigmundsson) during the time of 2022-2024. Mastered at Ambient Mountain House by James Bernard. Photography by Hyldýpi. Design and layout by zakè. |
about
Hyldýpi - Heilun (Past Inside The Present, 2025)
Following three full-length collections and a transcendent series of individual long form works, Iceland’s Hyldýpi makes his Past Inside The Present debut with Heilun (tr: “Healing”), a set of seven pieces that flow across 90 blissful minutes. Formed only with guitar and a modest selection of hardware, each movement is an improvisation born from a state of meditation. According to the artist, these sonic sculptures are “inspired by the raw nature [of Iceland], both within and without… I feel as though there is a conversation happening when I tap into these vibrations.” In line with its striking cover image, Heilun offers an escape to overcast open spaces, as its textures trace the contours of distant mountains and rest beside placid waters, guided by an exquisite melancholy.
Opening with “Vor”, Hyldýpi establishes a serene environment built on solemn, shifting chords, with quivering micro-melodies at every edge of the stereo field; its three-dimensional sense of space offers huge dividends to the headphone listener. “Opnun” creates a ceremonial air, with a loop of delicate, languid strums wafting across a vaporous midrange drone. In the act of deep listening, attention could be focused on any of its numerous layers, each one like a distinct gradation of color in a volcanic sunset.
Across its generous span, Heilun is an earnest, safe space to let the mind wander; each piece takes on its own tenor and tonality, but together they create a cohesive inward journey, best experienced unbroken. The deep, cocoon-like rumble of “Hvíld” offers particular peace and reassurance, as the roar and strain of the outside world only barely filter through, and reverberating, plucked accents untangle like freeform thoughts. Taking this notion one step further, the artist notes, “My aim is to connect to a place beyond the thinking mind, to the essence of being that dwells in all forms and in all places.”
The album’s centerpiece, “Faðmur”, is a sprawling, diffuse drone accented by mantra-like strums that develop with the pace of a flower following the sunlight, infused with a heartbreaking, minor key emotional weight. “Sorg” embraces the artifacts of the recording process and the telltales of human craftsmanship: analog hiss, the distant crackle of an amplifier, and muted fingertips on the fretboard. Along with these subtleties, it maintains the misty, harmonic thrum of the rest of the collection, while creating an alluring mystery in the barely perceptible dissonance of its middle frequencies.
The final chapter of Heilun, “Kyrrð”, focuses on a comforting, subaquatic wobble, graced by refracted streaks of swelling chords in the upper register. Illustrative of the entire collection, it presents a vivid rendition of Iceland’s spirituality and natural otherworldliness – beautiful, haunting, and timeless. About his improvisational approach to these compositions, and the headspace that yields them, Hyldýpi notes, “The process frees me of any attachment to ‘owning the creation’, and helps me to find formlessness without wanting it for myself, like drawings in sand – they come through me and then dissolve again into silence.”
RIYL: Windy and Carl, Labradford, Noveller, Chihei Hatakeyama, Markus Guentner, Rothko, Flying Saucer Attack
Following three full-length collections and a transcendent series of individual long form works, Iceland’s Hyldýpi makes his Past Inside The Present debut with Heilun (tr: “Healing”), a set of seven pieces that flow across 90 blissful minutes. Formed only with guitar and a modest selection of hardware, each movement is an improvisation born from a state of meditation. According to the artist, these sonic sculptures are “inspired by the raw nature [of Iceland], both within and without… I feel as though there is a conversation happening when I tap into these vibrations.” In line with its striking cover image, Heilun offers an escape to overcast open spaces, as its textures trace the contours of distant mountains and rest beside placid waters, guided by an exquisite melancholy.
Opening with “Vor”, Hyldýpi establishes a serene environment built on solemn, shifting chords, with quivering micro-melodies at every edge of the stereo field; its three-dimensional sense of space offers huge dividends to the headphone listener. “Opnun” creates a ceremonial air, with a loop of delicate, languid strums wafting across a vaporous midrange drone. In the act of deep listening, attention could be focused on any of its numerous layers, each one like a distinct gradation of color in a volcanic sunset.
Across its generous span, Heilun is an earnest, safe space to let the mind wander; each piece takes on its own tenor and tonality, but together they create a cohesive inward journey, best experienced unbroken. The deep, cocoon-like rumble of “Hvíld” offers particular peace and reassurance, as the roar and strain of the outside world only barely filter through, and reverberating, plucked accents untangle like freeform thoughts. Taking this notion one step further, the artist notes, “My aim is to connect to a place beyond the thinking mind, to the essence of being that dwells in all forms and in all places.”
The album’s centerpiece, “Faðmur”, is a sprawling, diffuse drone accented by mantra-like strums that develop with the pace of a flower following the sunlight, infused with a heartbreaking, minor key emotional weight. “Sorg” embraces the artifacts of the recording process and the telltales of human craftsmanship: analog hiss, the distant crackle of an amplifier, and muted fingertips on the fretboard. Along with these subtleties, it maintains the misty, harmonic thrum of the rest of the collection, while creating an alluring mystery in the barely perceptible dissonance of its middle frequencies.
The final chapter of Heilun, “Kyrrð”, focuses on a comforting, subaquatic wobble, graced by refracted streaks of swelling chords in the upper register. Illustrative of the entire collection, it presents a vivid rendition of Iceland’s spirituality and natural otherworldliness – beautiful, haunting, and timeless. About his improvisational approach to these compositions, and the headspace that yields them, Hyldýpi notes, “The process frees me of any attachment to ‘owning the creation’, and helps me to find formlessness without wanting it for myself, like drawings in sand – they come through me and then dissolve again into silence.”
RIYL: Windy and Carl, Labradford, Noveller, Chihei Hatakeyama, Markus Guentner, Rothko, Flying Saucer Attack
![Heilun - Hyldýpi [PITP65] pitp past inside the present ambient drone label women in ambient female](/uploads/2/3/7/8/23788058/heilun-hyld-pi-pitp65-pitp-past-inside-the-present-ambient-drone-label_orig.png)
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![Heilun - Hyldýpi [PITP65] pitp past inside the present ambient drone label](/uploads/2/3/7/8/23788058/heilun-hyld-pi-pitp65-pitp-past-inside-the-present-ambient-drone-label-cd1_orig.jpg)
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![Heilun - Hyldýpi [PITP65] pitp past inside the present ambient drone label](/uploads/2/3/7/8/23788058/heilun-hyld-pi-pitp65-pitp-past-inside-the-present-ambient-drone-label-cd2_orig.jpg)
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![Heilun - Hyldýpi [PITP65] pitp past inside the present ambient drone label](/uploads/2/3/7/8/23788058/heilun-hyld-pi-pitp65-pitp-past-inside-the-present-ambient-drone-label-cd3_orig.jpg)
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