Without Sinking

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Without Sinking is the second solo studio album by Icelandic cellist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, originally released on 30 March 2009 via the UK audio-visual label Touch (cata logue TO:70) as a 10-track, approximately 48-minute CD in a digipak with artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft, and reissued on double vinyl with additional tracks in 2011. The album was composed and recorded by Guðnadóttir in Berlin and Reykjavík, with contributions from a small circle of collaborators: bassist and electronics artist Skúli Sverrisson, organist and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, and her father, clarinetist Guðni Franzson. Guðnadóttir plays cello, zither, processors, and voice throughout. A vinyl reissue was also announced for 3 July 2026 via Deutsche Grammophon, which now holds the back catalogue under license. Guðnadóttir has described the album's inspiration as her fascination with observing clouds from an airplane window — their density, their ephemerality, and the quality of light filtered through them — and her desire to render that atmospheric quality in music through compositions built on sparse notes, loops, and gradual variation.Sonically, the album is built on layered, lightly processed, and overdubbed cello, creating what Touch described as "a rich and melancholy musical tapestry" hovering between dark ambient, post-classical, and experimental electronica. The 10 tracks — including "Elevation," "Erupting Light," "Circular," "Ascent," "Aether," "Into Warmer Air," and the extended closing piece "Unveiled" — maintain a nocturnal, introspective quality while avoiding stasis, moving through dense harmonic textures and more minimal passages with a deliberate, unhurried breath. Wears the Trousers described it as "a work of divine oppression that, while classically-minded, isn't meant for the elite," noting how the album balances hopelessness and grief with the relief suggested by its title, while Headphone Commute called it "an acoustic modern classical marvel." The album is considered a significant early statement in Guðnadóttir's solo catalogue and is among the works being reimagined for orchestra on her 2026 album This Will Be Us. Show more