Music
Press
"Muted
I’ll admit that of the performers tonight, the one that most excited me before I went was Muted, for the rather incidental reason that he is from Egilsstaðir, a town in the Eastern fjords region of Iceland. I have family there and spent some time in my early teens working as cowherd on a farm in nearby Seyðisfjörður, and so I have an emotional attachment to the place. It’s not the last place you’d expect a progressive dance musician to grow up, but it’s not the first location that comes to mind when you think of dubstep.
Music was the first artform to truly go global. When the privileged youth of planet Earth gained access to the internet in large numbers, they were met by an endless supply of music. Suddenly, if you were interested in one type of music above any other, you were no longer limited by what you could get in your local record store or order through the mail. Almost all of recorded music is yours to download. Anyone lucky enough to have steady access to the internet (between one and two billion people, depending on who you ask) can follow the cutting edge of the type of music they most cherish, and participate by uploading their own. Thus a guy like Muted can exist, a musician living in a small town on the edge of the habitable world, and yet fully involved in the creation of new forms of electronic dance music.
If Muted is a sign of the times, then times are good. I know I’m getting a bit monotonous in my praise, but everyone so far has been really good. Muted, like the previous two, constructs his set with the skill of someone fully immersed in his favourite genre of music. I don’t need to know dubstep from UK funky (which I don’t) to appreciate how well thought-out the performance is. I still wish people would dance."
- Kári Tulinius
- Reykjavík Grapevine
Discography
Releases:
The Beach (Digital) Influenza Media (INMED011) 2009
Mixed Signals (Digital) Hidden Hawaii (HHD004) 2009
Dungeon & Electric Things (Digital) Amen Brothers (AMENDIGI008) 2009
Something In Mind & Terror (Digital) Qilin Music (QLN004) 2010
Passing By (12) Alphacut (ACR017) 2010
Litestar (12/CD/Digital) MJAZZ (MJAZZLP003) 2010
Misguided (Digital) All Street (ASTDSUB002) 2010
Aquisse (Muted Remix) (Digital) - MJAZZ (MJAZZDIGI001) 2010
Classified (CD) MJAZZ (MJAZZLP004) 2010
Empty Valley EP (3 tunes) (Digital) Hidden Hawaii (HHD007) 2011
"Born Backwards ft. Grimm" (Digital) - Digi-Lab 2011
Samaris - Hljóma Þú (Muted Remix)" (CD) - Self-released 2011
"Stratocumulus" (Digital) - MJAZZ 2012
"Asonat - Dandelions (For You) (Muted Remix)" (Digital) - n5MD 2012
Cope With It (CD) MJAZZ 2012
Forthcoming:
"Muted World LP" - Nu Directions - Jan/feb 2013
"Space EP pt.1" - TBA - 2013
Photos
Bio
My name is Bjarni Rafn Kjartansson. I am a 24 year old from a small town in the eastest region of Iceland called Egilsstaðir. I have no musical background but after being DJ-ing for 3 years I decided to start making my own tunes in January 2009. From the beginning I have used Propellerhead Reason and around using it as a sequencer I have evolved a lot. I recently bought a Zoom H4N which I take with me everywhere I go so my tunes are mostly records of sounds made by myself combined with samples I have sampled myself from movies and old vinyl I like.
At first I was making drumnbass tunes and got some releases within that scene, digital, 12 and CD releases but in 2010 I decided to try write completely from the heart, not being tied down within some limits. I have been experimenting with that since mid 2010 and now Ive found the sound I like.
I have played most of the festivals here in Iceland and I also lived in Reykjavík for a year where I helped out with the Breakbeat.is radio show.
I play live sets mostly, using my Akai APC 40 with Ableton Live, but I can also play DJ sets.
Here is a list of my previous gigs:
Road Rage Festival - Egilsstaðir, Iceland (June 2009)
Breakbeat.is night - Reykjavík, Iceland (July 2009)
Réttir festival - Reykjavík, Iceland (September 2009)
Iceland Airwaves - Reykjavík, Iceland (October 2009)
700IS - Eiðar, Iceland (March 2010)
Breakbeat.is night - Reykjavík, Iceland (May 2010)
DNB.is night - Reykjavík, Iceland (May 2010)
Weirdcore night - Reykjavík, Iceland (June 2010)
LungA festival - Seyðisfjörður, Iceland (July 2010)
Iceland Airwaves - Reykjavík, Iceland (October 2010)
LungA festival - Seyðisfjörður, Iceland (July 2011)
Samaris release party - Reykjavík, Iceland (August 2011)
Iceland Airwaves - Reykjavík, Iceland (October 2011)
..and a lot of small gigs all over Iceland.
+ various podcasts and mixes for radio stations.
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