Pulling inspiration from the beauty of their surroundings, it’s easy to see the otherworldly influence in the work of Icelandic composers. Some of the country’s most recognizable names include the late Golden Globe winner Jóhann Jóhannsson (The Theory of Everything), recent Golden Globe winner Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker), and Atli Örvarsson (Pirates of the Caribbean). Quickly joining their ranks is Valgeir Sigurðsson, whose eerily beautiful and scene-setting melodies fuel the soundtrack to Grímur Hákonarson’s Icelandic comedy, The County.

Cinemacy is excited to exclusively premiere the track “The County (Revisited By Paul Corley),” which premiered at TIFF 2019. The film tells the story of Inga, a middle-aged dairy farmer who rebels against the omnipotent local Co-Op to live life on her terms. In this sneak peek of Sigurðsson’s 8-minute-long title track, we’re immediately transfixed by the airy and moody ambient sounds from nature coupled with a beautiful mixture of string violins and other experimental electronics.

Sigurðsson explains, “I watched the film a few times, and then I turned off the screen and just wrote music in response to what I had seen. I often do this because I want to make a score that flows with its own narrative. On Grímur’s suggestion, we used a lot of synths and electronic textures and also used some of the real sounds from the film for the score… In the final mix, I think we cut about 50% of the score that I had completed, or more even, we agreed fully on all the cuts. But, on the soundtrack release, I keep many of these elements because they informed my process and I feel that they are integral to the music and necessary when it is stripped of the images it was created for.”

The 15-track album is now available on Sigurðsson’s Icelandic music collective/record label Bedroom Community, which he formed in 2016 with composers Nico Muhly and Ben Frost.