I was commissioned by the town of Kopavogur to write a composition to one of Jón úr Vör’s poems for an award ceremony in 2022. It was a fun project, selecting a poem and writing music that would embrace it. I read through some of his books and took photos on my phone of the poems that appealed to me. He wrote a lot about the hardship of life in Iceland but also about the hope that spring would bring, love and wanting to get away from the blabber of the people in the village. I chose the poems about love and optimism and those that I thought expressed a nice sense of humor.

When I started writing the music I wrote two quite different pieces, a ballad and a blues. I really liked both pieces so I performed both of them at the aforementioned ceremony with vocalist Marína Ósk. I also found it very rewarding to work with Marína Ósk so I decided to write a few more tunes to some of the other poems I had selected and make a project that we could record and continue to work with. I added two Iceland based musicians, Nico Moreaux from France and Scott McLemore on drums.

I also put together a book with the sheet music to the 7 songs including photos from the recording session and a photo shoot that we did. Everything involving this project has been really fun and I am very honored and happy that the town of Kopavogur commissioned me in the first place.