L´amour fou is a tango-salon band, consisting of 5 Icelandic musicians who already met in highschool in Iceland. The band´s repertoire is based on the old European "salon" tradition, with rich influences of jazz and tango. Music by the masters Carlos Gardel, Jakob Gade, Nino Rota, Astor Piazzolla and more are items on the band´s program, in arrangements made by Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson, the cellist of the group.]]>
L´amour fou also focuses on arrangements of popular Icelandic songs from various times, from the "Golden Age" of Icelandic songwriting to the Disco period. Hrafnkell Orri has also composed a series of songs for the band since the beginning. The group has worked with current members since 2002 and contributed to the Icelandic music flora since then. It was sponsored by the Reykjavík City Cultural Fund to make new arrangements of Icelandic songs and to do a tour of Iceland in the summer of 2003. The band´s New Year´s concert in the theatre Idnó, Reykjavík was recorded by the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV) and broadcasted on New Year´s Eve 2003. The musicians of the group are: Hrafnhildur Atladóttir, violin, Gudrún Hrund Hardardóttir, viola, Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson, cello, Gunnlaugur Torfi Stefánsson, bass and Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir, piano. They are living in Iceland, the Netherlands and the US. In 2004 the group gathered together in a studio and released a CD in December 2005 in Iceland named "Íslensku Lögin" (transl. The Icelandic Songs), listen here.
The group´s concerts have been the following:
2006
Performance at the opening of the exhibition "Pure Iceland", Science Museum, London, January
2005
CD release concert in the National Theatre´s Basement, Reykjavík, December
2004
Concert in Idnó, Reykjavík, September
2003
Concert in Idnó, Reykjavík, 26th and 27th of August
Concert in Hamrar, Ísafjördur, Iceland, 24th of August,
Lunch concert in Ketilhús, Akureyri, Iceland, 22nd of August,
Concert on the Reykjavík Cultural City Night in Idnó, 16th of August
2002
New Year´s Eve concert in Idnó, Reykjavík, 30th of December
Concert in Hamrar, Ísafjördur, Iceland, September
Concert in Kaffileikhúsid, Reykjavík, September
1999
The first concert in Hladvarpinn, Reykjavík
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Prepared Piano is a concept which the composer John Cage invented. I got in touch with it for the first time at NEC in Boston during my studies there. "Prepared piano" means putting all kinds of different objects carefully into the piano, between the strings, to change its sound. 
