Áki Ásgeirsson,
Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson,
Gestur Guðnason,
Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson,
Hallvarður Ásgeirsson,
Hildur I. Guðnadóttir,
Ingi Garðar Erlendsson,
Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir,
Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir,
Ólafur Björn Ólafsson,
Páll Ivan Pálsson
Stórsveit Nix Noltes was founded in the fall of 2004 by nine musicians living in Reykjavik whose interests was to play folk music from Bulgaria and the Balkan regions in their own arrangements. Although most members had participated in various bands and experiments before (and continue to do so, including founding members of múm, Benni Hemm Hemm, Lost in Hildurness, rúnk, Kanada and Hestbak among others), it was actually a class in balkan music in the local art school with guitarist Hilmar Jensson that brought them together.
After an intense concert period in every other venue in Reykjavik and some in New York that winter, they recorded the album Orkídeur Havaí in an old farmhouse in Borgarfjörður, Iceland.
Orkídeur Havaí was released on the Icelandic 12 Tónar label in 2005 as well on Bubblecore Records the following year.
After touring Europe and the US in 2005 and 2006 the group recorded their second album, now with eleven members, during the last few summerdays of the extraordinary sunny august 2006 in a small studio outside Reykjavik called The Hot Tub. Recorded live to 1" 16 track tape in an extremely small cottage with a room that paradoxically barely fitted all of the members at once, the album was mixed in various locations in Reykjavík; in rehearsal spaces and parents livingroom´s although the best mixes were definately made at Orri´s (the recording engingeer) studio called Ellingsen but mostly at the great studio, Sundlaugin.
The proudly self-produced and self-released album by the band, titled Royal Family - Divorce was released in december 2007. It is distributed by 12 Tónar in Iceland and will be out on FatCat America later this year.
Royal Family - Divorce, is available as a download + cd on the fabulous grapewire.net website.
To enjoy the critically acclaimed eleven piece big band´s original arrangements of ten bulgarian folk songs in a phsycadelic punkrock outfit with a twist, check this out. Good times!
Storsveit Nix Noltes Royal Family-Divorce CD and Download link
Storsveit Nix Noltes on the grapewire
