Performing in the honor of Michael Winterbottom
Winner of the Time for Peace English Language Film Award
Högni Egilsson
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honor and great pleasure to be here tonight. We would like to thank our hosts Robert Einbeck and Marion Einbeck greatly for the dinner-- it was a fantastic and splendid evening. I think I should actually mention that this band is called “Hjaltalin.” Hjaltalin is a surname in Icelandic; surnames are not very common in Icelandic. Surnames tend to bear a sort of aristocratic meaning. The surnames are names your father wore and your son wears after you; they tend to be part of the aristocratic class. But usually the family names are…if my name is Haraldsson…ok this is sort of strange that I am talking about this now…my name is Haraldsson and it just means the son of Harald, my father’s name is Harald. But Hjaltalin is just a common surname. I don’t actually know why we picked this name for the group. The group is actually a much larger group; this is a stripped down version of the band. We had a release concert for our album in February and we were about thirteen on stage. I ask you to participate in the listening of the songs. There comes a chorus after the verse, and in each chorus I think you should imagine that there is a large brass section or woodwind section that is the usual sort of medium for our group. In every chorus there are very large horns and trumpets and trombones. We don’t have them tonight but it is great to be here tonight. So, I think you should imagine that in every chorus there comes a great, big, humongous sound to it. We are going to play a couple of songs and I hope you enjoy them. Have a great dinner and great evening.