Hildur Guðnadóttir: This will be us – Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Award-winning Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s upcoming album This Will Be Us is a deeply personal reflection on memory, connection and the people who shape us.  

On it, Guðnadóttir revisits music from across her catalogue alongside two new compositions – the album reimagines works once recorded in solitude through the expansive voice of orchestra, for which she is joined by conductor and longtime collaborator Robert Ames and the DSO Berlin. The album cover artwork was created by acclaimed Icelandic-Danish artist Ólafur Elíasson, with liner notes by Hildur herself and filmmaker Sarah Polley. 

“When I was recording, trying to be a one-person string orchestra, I always dreamed of having more people playing with me. Now, twenty years later, I decided to make that dream come true – to give that young person the anniversary gift of hearing her music played by an orchestra,” says Guðnadóttir. 

At its heart, This Will Be Us is an album about interdependence — the friendships, family and creative kinships that make art possible. Across luminous arrangements and quietly powerful textures, Guðnadóttir explores the space between darkness and light, solitude and togetherness, seeking and belonging. The result is both retrospective and forward-looking: music that honours where she has been while embracing the shared humanity that continues to guide her work. 

Listen to a first pre-release track, the orchestral version of Guðnadóttir’s moving piece Bær. The full album is released digitally, on CD and on vinyl on 23 October.