Edvard Egilsson wins HARPA Nordic Film Composers Award for SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD score
Icelandic composer Edvard Egilsson has won the 2024 HARPA Nordic Film Composers Award, for his original score to Anna Hints' documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. The award was handed out February 17 as part Nordic Film Music Days, which runs concurrently with the Berlinale.
This marked the second consecutive year Edvard has been nominated for the awards. The jury states that Edvard's score is a special one. "Special, not only because it is the result of a cooperative process between the composer and the director, but also because it is melting together human voices, rhythmic, yet fleshy sounds. Giving an earthy, earnest and poetic smoke to the film."
The score for Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a collaboration between Egilsson and the Estonian electronic folk trio, Eeter – the director of the film, Anna Hints also being one of the 3 members.
Producer of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, Marianne Ostrat, says that:
she and Anna Hints felt a strong gravitational pull towards Iceland, when choosing which Nordic country to coproduce with.
"It extended beyond the lure of the excellent reputation of Icelandic music. The vision was to have an Icelandic composer collaborate with Anna's band EETER. It helped that I already had an ongoing collaboration with producer Hlín Jóhannesdóttir from Ursus Parvus, who found us Edvard Egilsson. It is Edvard's talent of course, but even more importantly his openess and curiosity towards South-Estonian smoke sauna culture, flexibility and readiness to dive into the unknown and the primordial synchronicity with our mindsets and sensibility, that made the soundtrack of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood- of which I am so happy and proud - possible."
The Icelandic composer association, STEF, CEO, Guðrún Björk Bjarnadóttir, congratulates Edvard Egilzzon on winning the prize.
"I find it almost unbelievable that this is the 5th time that Iceland, such a small nation, has won this prestigious award. Some say the reason for the relative success of Icelandic music might indeed be the minute population, which leads to a close-knit and supportive artistic community. I'm quite sure that's a big part of the reason. I also strongly believe that the investment in arts and culture, along with government support for musical education and the growing infrastructure of the music industry, also has some bearing, probably more than people realize."
For more information, visit Nordic Film Music Days .
Photo: Thomas Kolbein Bjørk Olsen, Berlinkontoret.no