Icelandic Sensation Emilíana Torrini

Take Note! Music House, address given upon reservation, Barrie, ON

We’ve got a special presentation for you in may, courtesy of our friend Bob Henderson, who has is own concert series in Stouffville and has arranged an Ontario tour for Icelandic singer Emilíana Torrini, accompanied by Toronto guitarist David Celia. This is a rare treat, by a musician who has released four international albums, and earned favourable comparisons to no less an artist than Björk. North American audiences will probably know her best as the singer of “Gollum’s Song” in the film “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”. And yes, she’s coming to our living room!

Emilíana Torrini will be performing her final show of her Ontario tour at the Take Note! Music House on Thursday, May 28 at 7:30 pm (doors open at 7:00). Requested donation is $20, with all proceeds going directly to the performer. You may reserve your seat by calling (705) 305-1687 or emailing concerts@takenotepromotion.com – directions will be given upon reservation.

We started getting reservations to this show even before last month’s Ron Hynes concert, so don’t wait too long to book your space!


Emilíana Torrini (http://emilianatorrini.com)

”Iceland’s warmest voice” [NPR Music]

Perhaps best known for her 1999 album “Love in the Time of Science” and her work in the phenomenally successful “Lord of the Rings” film series, Emiliana Torrini crafts delicate, soft-spoken soul- and jazz-influenced music, embracing elements of folk, electronica, pop/rock, and trip-hop.

Born to an Icelandic mother and Italian father, Torrini grew up in Kópavogur where, at the age of seven, she joined a choir as a soprano. She continued with the choir until she went to opera school at the age of fifteen.

After releasing three albums in Iceland (“Spoon”, “Crouçie D’où Là” and “Merman”), she joined forces with Tears for Fears’ Roland Orzabal to produce her first widely released effort, 1999’s “Love in the Time of Science”. The famed “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson heard her cool, otherworldly croon and approved Torrini to voice the finale music for 2002’s “The Two Towers”. – a job that Björk had previously accepted before backing out due to pregnancy.

Torrini followed up by releasing “Fisherman’s Woman”, her first album for the London-based label Rough Trade Records. It was a back-to-basics effort that deemphasized Torrini’s use of electronics in favour of acoustic guitar, piano, and the singer’s cherubic vocals.

2008’s “Me and Armini” was an honest and stripped-down representation of Torrini’s work, emphasizing her crisp voice with bare-bones guitars and keyboards. The record spawned the European hit single “Jungle Drum”, which shot to number one in her native Iceland, as well as Germany and Belgium. Torrini took the album on a two-year worldwide tour and then became a parent in 2010, after which she took a short break from music. Both of these events changed her approach to music and influenced her songwriting process heavily.

Her most recent album, “Tookah”, was released in 2013.