Biography
Born on 6 February 1973 in Reykjavík, Iceland, Einar Tonsberg launched his experimental laptop folk solo project after playing in several short-lived pop, punk and electro groups in his native city plus the London outfit Lorien throughout the 1990s. Despite restricted gear and modest resources he built an audience by blending resourcefulness with an unconventional method of constructing songs. The initial fifty copies of Plastic Lions, issued in 2004, appeared inside individually crafted, hand-painted and numbered wooden boxes; earnings from those units financed a subsequent pressing of one thousand discs housed in standard jewel cases, after which the Oxford independent imprint Rotator issued the album more widely.
Tonsberg has explained that his compositions typically start with a hunt for unusual textures and beats around which to shape a piece. The resulting work pairs economical, repetitive lyrics with off-kilter yet appealing sonic assemblages, as heard on the track ‘Smoker In A Film’. Among his favoured tools is the eharp, a homemade contraption merging a Fender Stratocaster with a coat hanger. This inventive spirit, paired with an Icelandic quirkiness reminiscent of Björk’s earlier explorations, drew attention from the British music press.
Tonsberg joined the UK independent label Instant Karma in 2006 and delivered the album Voff Voff. The title, playfully derived from the bark of Icelandic dogs, marked an advance over the debut solely in its production values. The same playful tone surfaced immediately on the opening song ‘Love Your Bum’, whose entire lyric consists of advertising slogans for toilet paper, while more reflective acoustic pieces such as ‘Sober In June’ and ‘Place Between Now And Then’ supplied a contrasting mood of quiet whimsy.
Tonsberg has explained that his compositions typically start with a hunt for unusual textures and beats around which to shape a piece. The resulting work pairs economical, repetitive lyrics with off-kilter yet appealing sonic assemblages, as heard on the track ‘Smoker In A Film’. Among his favoured tools is the eharp, a homemade contraption merging a Fender Stratocaster with a coat hanger. This inventive spirit, paired with an Icelandic quirkiness reminiscent of Björk’s earlier explorations, drew attention from the British music press.
Tonsberg joined the UK independent label Instant Karma in 2006 and delivered the album Voff Voff. The title, playfully derived from the bark of Icelandic dogs, marked an advance over the debut solely in its production values. The same playful tone surfaced immediately on the opening song ‘Love Your Bum’, whose entire lyric consists of advertising slogans for toilet paper, while more reflective acoustic pieces such as ‘Sober In June’ and ‘Place Between Now And Then’ supplied a contrasting mood of quiet whimsy.
Albums