Una Sveinbjarnardóttir says “Last Song was inspired by the moment before the realization of something that drastically changes your life, the moment of just being, existing in the moment. That moment in time is free and full, mindfulness-ish and unaffected by misery, sorrow, regret, shame, anxiety, and depression. In my mind it is bright and has a sense of nostalgia.

The title also refers to a daily tradition on Icelandic radio Rás 1, where a song, “last song before the news” would be played just before the news hour at noon. The song would typically be an Icelandic one, sometimes a lullaby, a love song, or an ode to scary and gorgeous nature. Or an Icelandic traditional, sometimes an Italian canzone or a Scandinavian sorrow.

Jórunn Viðar’s piece Icelandic Suite sums up all these elements, a piece written for the two thousand years anniversary of inhabitation in Iceland in 1974.

The lightness and the longing are with us throughout the program except in the title piece of mine, Last Song before the News, where apocalyptic visions are obvious and take over early on.

The album is dedicated to my father, Sveinbjörn Rafnsson, whose lightness and passion for music, poetry, and history along with his sense of humor has been a lifeline to many people.”

Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, Violin
Tinna Porsteinsdóttir, Piano

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