Virgin Orchestra
Reykjavík has always had a way of birthing music that feels like it was written somewhere between isolation and eternity, music both intimate and cosmic in scale. Virgin Orchestra [Rún Árnadóttir (cello), Stefanía Pálsdóttir (bass, vocals), Starri Holm], a rising collective of friends-turned-collaborators, channel that tension with stunning sensitivity on their new EP "Let It Burn", released on May 22nd, 2025. Though still at an early stage in their story, the band already shows the kind of emotional intelligence and sonic clarity that promises longevity.
What immediately strikes the listener is how effortlessly Let It Burn balances contrast: fragility and grandeur, atmosphere and structure, warmth and rawness. The EP brings together six tracks, some of which had previously been released as singles, but now reappear in a refined and cohesive context. Still, the EP flows like a complete body of work, not because it was crafted as such from the start, but because each piece was carefully chosen and reshaped to reflect the band’s collective voice. Songs like "Venus In Scorpio" and "Heat" feel cinematic, but they also breathe, carried by glistening textures and deeply human arrangements.
The group’s creative process leans into openness, improvisation, and mutual listening. Their responses in this interview reflect a trust not only in each other, but also in the music itself, treating it almost like a living presence, letting it guide them. While they come from the same Icelandic soil that gave us artists like Sigur Rós or Ólafur Arnalds, Virgin Orchestra are carving out a distinct path, one that feels both contemporary and personal, shaped by their own instincts and emotional landscapes.
And if the EP feels this fully realized, it’s even more exciting to learn that the band already has more music on the horizon, demos for a third album in the works and a fall tour through Europe in the pipeline. Let It Burn isn’t just a promising release. It’s a quiet, glowing marker of arrival.
Scroll down for the full interview with Virgin Orchestra — a conversation about trust, sound, and life in Reykjavík.
The Basement: First of all, congratulations on Let It Burn. It’s an emotionally layered and beautifully crafted EP. How does it feel to have this new work out in the world?
Rún: It feels exciting and liberating. It feels amazing to be finally able to share it.
Stef: Thank you so much! It has been a long time coming since we recorded it last summer, but it is amazing to finally have it out in the world. Although I have been feeling a bit of a post-release-blues. But I think that’s probably just normal… end of a waiting chapter.
The Basement: From the opening seconds of "Venus In Scorpio" to the final echoes of "Heat", the EP feels like a cinematic dream. How did the concept of Let It Burn take shape creatively?
Starri: There isn’t really a concrete concept for LET IT BURN. The plan was, essentially, to make a concise EP that showed all of our different strengths by including a very diverse selection of songs. What we discovered though once the album was ready was that it did indeed have a natural flow despite how varied the songs are, which was great since the EP wasn’t really conceived as a whole piece per se.
Stef: Cinematic dream. I love that metaphor, it feels very suiting. But I agree with what Starri said. Initially we wanted to make a full length LP but because of various reasons we decided to handpick just six of our demos to finish in the studio, and stitch them together in a way that would make it more as a whole and not just six random tracks that we liked and wanted to work on. But we have the demos ready for the third album, and we are very excited to go to the studio to record them. All in good time though, might give this EP a bit of a breather as well.
The Basement: Your sound balances intimacy and grandeur in a very unique way. Almost like ambient rock with orchestral overtones. Is this a direction you aim to follow, or do you enjoy reinventing yourselves with each release?
Rún: We do have a mutual aim when we make music, but the creative process is very open. We are very interested in experiments in any way and for LET IT BURN we had some time to really follow through with some weird experimenting and strange ideas of each other.
Stef: I usually approach the music as in asking “where does this music want to be taken” and then just follow along for the ride. Like, we are its vessel into birthing it into the form it wants to be. Then along the way we become this kind of a feedback loop, us and the music, since we are feeding into each other and collectively figuring out what it wants. I think that approach to the music - as its own entity - usually results in something very intimate and “true”.
The Basement: Reykjavík seems to quietly shape so much of the music that comes from Iceland. How does the city, the weather, and the sense of place find their way into your writing or sound?
Rún: Iceland is quite a harsh place, the landscape is beautiful but very unforgiving. Translates into music yes, vast, cold and harsh, but beautiful. Harsh epicness.
The Basement: Do you feel you’re at the beginning of something long-term with Virgin Orchestra? Or is this still an open chapter for you, where you’re figuring out what role music will play in your lives?
Stef: Currently we are very happy with where things are at. We are great friends and share this immersive obsession for the band. This is really all that we want, to be in this band.
The Basement: Iceland has given us artists like Sigur Rós, Björk, and Ólafur Arnalds. Musicians who managed to bring deeply personal, almost “local” soundworlds to a global audience. Do you ever think about where you’d like Virgin Orchestra to fit into that legacy?
Starri: I don’t think we’ve ever truly thought about where we fit into the legacy of Icelandic music. I suppose it is a little different now since music is uploaded through the internet and therefore it automatically reaches a global audience. I think our sound, while in some regards very Icelandic, it’s also so inspired by sounds that came from the UK and the US, so in a sense our sound is more “global” in a way.
Stef: Honestly, I think labels like these are somewhat always figured out retrospectively. I think we might be able to answer this question in maybe 10 years or so. Time will tell!
The Basement: What kind of artistic environment do you have around you in Reykjavík? Are you connected to a broader creative scene of other musicians, visual artists, collectives?
Stef: There are some collectives here for sure, but the music scene here in Iceland being very small therefore people kind of know everyone or “know of” everyone. But we have friends that are also doing various arts and that could be classified as “collectives”? Also there are a lot of our friends that work with us on the “virgin orchestra” project, like graphic designers, dancers, session instrumentalists, film makers … Oh and we actually have “the virgin orchestra orchestra” that is a collective of our classically trained musician friends that play our larger arrangements. It’s beautiful. Maybe us and our friends are the collective.
The Basement: Do you record mostly independently? Or is there a team of producers, engineers that helps shape your sound?
Starri: So our demo process is done by us exclusively. One of us will write a demo which can be a full song or just a section and then we each listen to it and write our own parts. Then we meet up and brainstorm together and that’s when we’ll rearrange or re-work certain sections so that it becomes a proper fusion of all of our musical identities. When we go into the studio we bring our producer James Mottershead in to work with us. Once we’re in the studio there is often a bit more re-working and brainstorming before recording the final version. So to summarise; our process is mostly independent but we collaborate with our producer once we’re in the studio.
Stef: Yes, we record independently when we are making soundscapes and layers, and the demos of course, but for the recording of the main instrumental arrangements like strings, guitar and vocals we bring in our producer James and finish things off in the studio. It is great to have him, when we have been muddling with the demos for months we become kind of braindead and very interlaced with it. Fresh pairs of ears then help us break it up where it needs to and things added where are needed.
The Basement: Finally, what would you hope a listener takes away after spending time with "Let It Burn"?
Stef: Maybe just for the sincerity to shine through. It is a very honest work and that is all that art can be, really. I believe the art is what happens between the final result and the lived experience of the consumer, so whatever the listener might feel listening to the album is a mission accomplished. Nothing is right and nothing is wrong.
The Basement: With "Let It Burn" now out, are there any plans for a tour to support the release? And more generally, what’s your relationship with performing live? How do you translate your sound on stage, and how do you feel interacting with an audience?
Rún: We live for the live performances, filled with buzzing energy.
Stef: There is nothing like a live performance. That energy, that momentum … I just absolutely love it. Last year I decided to stop playing bass live, in order to be able to focus more on the crowd engagement and singing. It has been a great liberation for me to be able to move around more, go into the crowd and really be present with them, to feel the music with them and give the best show possible. We have a release show coming up in the summer here in Iceland, but then we have an Europe tour in the pipelines for this fall. Very exciting!
A warm thank you for opening up and letting us into your process, truly a pleasure! Can't wait to have your EP on wax !
