After their debut album, Sleepdrunk Seasons, slipped out last year to critical commendation but little else, Iceland’s Hjaltalín further dip their collective toe into UK waters this month with a both a tour and the release of the their first single. AU speaks to Högni Egilsson, lead singer of the eight-piece ensemble, about the heady loveliness of ‘Traffic Music’, the current state of the music scene in Iceland, and the progress made on their second album.

The single ‘Traffic Music’ is indeed utterly gorgeous – a breathless, skittering verse gives way to the orchestral gush of a joyous chorus. You’ll be pushed to hear a more life-affirming song this year, and, as Högni explains, its creation was a natural evolution. “We thought it be a good idea to add all these orchestra instruments to make, I guess, a kind of more ethnic sound. The song is performed in a large group setting, and we use the colour of each instrument.”

The band’s name provides a further insight into how Högni envisions their sound. “Hjaltalín is a family name, but in Iceland we don’t actually bear the family name. So, to have a surname used to have a kind of aristocratic reference. It’s a snobby name, and, I guess, the music is kind of snobby!” If ‘snobby’ means beautiful songs, sketched out with brass and wind instruments, whilst being cajoled by Högni’s delightfully clipped vocal, then AU will start hanging around the odd polo match or two.

Most people probably assume that Björk and Sigur Rós dominate Iceland’s music scene, a notion that Högni rejects. “It’s good that our bands have been noticed outside Iceland, but it doesn’t really tell the story of the music of our land. We get into a routine of being and productive and original, because it’s such a small community. So it’s their productiveness that inspires us to do what we do, but not directly their music.”

Unfortunately, Iceland has also become infamous for being at the forefront of the global economic crisis, with the country’s financial infrastructure still in a state of chaos. Högni believes that the situation has caused Icelandic people to re-evaluate their relationship with art. “It’s had a kind of ideological kind of effect as it turns the picture around. Personally, I took positives from the collapse as I now want art to have some meaning. A song can’t just be about anything; it has to have much more meaning than before.” There is a noble purity about Hjaltalín’s music that almost acts to heal the soul.

Hjaltalín are already working on their second album, and the initial signs point to a change in musical direction. “We’re playing some festivals in the summer, like Roskilde, Latitude and The Great Escape. So, we hope the album will be finished in the autumn. We’ve done two or three tracks so far. It’s more musical – it’s not as organic. It’s not as dressy, as flowery as the other album – it’s more solid, I think. We wanted it to be more confident, more technical and to sound different.” But, hopefully, still with an element of snobbishness. John Freeman

The single ‘Traffic Music’ is out now via Haldern Pop Recordings.

www.myspace.com/hjaltalinband