Kira Kira is a constant enigma- extremely hard to define and almost impossible to anticipate. As a founding member of Icelandic art collective Kitchen Motors, she has been a pivotal figure in contemporary Icelandic music, composing music extensively for theatre, dance and film and creating myriad sound and film installations everywhere from Beijing to New York. Taking a particular interest in blurring the lines between music and visual arts Kira has often appeared in castle towers, gallery spaces or curious hidden places and created lasting images of singing black holes, dueling smoke machines and exploding cassette tapes across the globe.
Before Kira Kira, Kristin Bjork Kristjansdottir played in Spúnk, Big Band Brutal and The Sigridur Nielsdottir Experience. Skotta, Kira Kira’s debut album was released on Smekkleysa Records (Bad Taste Ltd) in 2006 and her second LP, Our Map to The Monster Olympics came out on June 26th 2008. It is available from Smekkleysa in Iceland and from Afterhours in Japan with a special edition remix by Emilie Simon.
Our Map to the Monster Olympics is a twisting, sometimes terrifying, often glorious and touching kaleidoscope of a record. Swarms of fragmented voices mouth melodies through home made microphones while contact-miced Kalimbas fight for breath in seas of beautifully damaged technicolour, granulated shotgun beats fire from sniper positions in foreboding atmospheres- AND YET armies of glockenspiels, brass and casios remind us that everything will, in fact, be ok.
Our Map to the Monster Olympics was recorded in Iceland and Finland and draws on a host of collaborators including: Alex Somers (Parachutes, Riceboy Sleeps), Samuli Kosminen (mum, Kimmo Pohjonen), Eirikur Orri Olafsson (mum, Benni Hemm Hemm), Hilmar Jensson (Alas No Axis) and guitarist Petur Hallgrimsson (Lhooq, Kylie Minogue). |
