Icelandic Theremin Musician Hekla Magnúsdóttir is a rare specialist of the theremin, a notoriously inscrutable electronic instrument, joining a miniscule group of musicians in mastery of its esoteric mysteries. Classically informed, her playing covers an enormous range, from skittering birdsong of chirrups and chirps to tectonic sub-bass.
Her fans in the wider music community – PJ Harvey, for example – describe her style alongside musicians such as Colleen, Julia Holter or the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. Hekla released two albums in 2025: The acclaimed album “Turnar” and her current EP “Gjá” . Now she is touring Europe and will be visiting Berlin on April 2nd 2026 to play a Show in the cosy salon wellenmaschine. The evening will be opened by a very special guest from Berlin – Tape Artist & Soundcollagist Window Magic!
“Hekla plumbs the theremin’s weird, otherworldly depths, channeling a particularly contemporary bleakness that tethers it firmly to the 21st century.” – Pitchfork
Now augmenting her virtuosic solo theremin work with cello, voice, and the sacred church organ of Icelandic master Kristján Hrannar, the evolution of Hekla’s unique magic summoned new worlds with her third album Turnar.
The album and Gjá – a new collection of accompanying tracks – were both partly recorded in (and named after) a medieval castle tower in rural France, its ruinous black broken in spare beams of angelic stained-glass light. But, writes Hekla, “the sound of theremin kind of opens up a portal into a new realm that both looks into a dark old world and to the future.” As with the album, Gjá is an alternately beautiful and crushing space voyage into a glacial underworld cascading with phosphorescence and cave drip, conjuring ancient choral ritual just as readily as redolent sci-fi gloam.
“Cinematic… carefully orchestrated… delicately explores unfamiliar territory with uncanny finesse.”– The Wire
Hekla is a rare specialist of the theremin, a notoriously inscrutable electronic instrument, joining a miniscule group of musicians in mastery of its esoteric mysteries.
