There are bands whose every album is a new step into the unknown. There are others whose development is reliable over a long period of time, a consistent, ever-expanding development of their terrain. The Icelandic music collective ADHD belongs among the latter. Every new album is a logical expansion of all their previous albums. Yet, every new step on the path naturally also offers new perspectives and horizons. Even more so in an island country, like Iceland, windswept and surrounded by the waves of the ocean, in which the whole of life is marked by wide horizons, long distances and the perspectives that emerge from this sense of expansive space. The stoically titled ‘ADHD 7’ album is thus a mixture of both something of ‘the old’ and of ‘the new’.
Until now the general view was that if one wanted to understand the band one had to experience them live. The albums were high class souvenirs, evoking something of the energy of the live concerts at home. Indeed, it is al...

There are bands whose every album is a new step into the unknown. There are others whose development is reliable over a long period of time, a consistent, ever-expanding development of their terrain. The Icelandic music collective ADHD belongs among the latter. Every new album is a logical expansion of all their previous albums. Yet, every new step on the path naturally also offers new perspectives and horizons. Even more so in an island country, like Iceland, windswept and surrounded by the waves of the ocean, in which the whole of life is marked by wide horizons, long distances and the perspectives that emerge from this sense of expansive space. The stoically titled ‘ADHD 7’ album is thus a mixture of both something of ‘the old’ and of ‘the new’.
Until now the general view was that if one wanted to understand the band one had to experience them live. The albums were high class souvenirs, evoking something of the energy of the live concerts at home. Indeed, it is almost impossible to describe their concerts in conventional musical parameters. When guitarist and base player ÓMAR GUÐJÓNSSON, saxophone player ÓSKAR GUÐJÓNSSON, drummer MAGNÚS TRYGVASON ELIASSEN and the new man on the keyboards, THÓMAS JÓNSSON, are on stage, the ordinary Middle European mortal will get at least a vague sense of how the island people in the very north of Europe have been able to survive the long and icy winters through the centuries. – They simply produce their energy out of themselves.

With ‘ADHD7’, one now perceives for the first time a change from the close links between their albums and live shows. This album stands adeptly on its own. Lines of demarcation between jazz, rock, folk and principles taken from electronic music are even less perceptible than before. The keyboards take on a much more central place than before. ADHD confidently demonstrate that their music needs no classification. Magnús Trygvason Eliassen comments: ‘We rehearsed a great deal more for this album than for the previous CDs. Usually we just began playing in the studio and would be excited to hear what would emerge. For ‘ADHD7’ we were well prepared. The chemistry in the group, however, has not really changed. A new member, new instruments, and new experience; that is all.

More of an understatement is hardly imaginable. But it fits with these four lovable Icelandic fellows and their sympathetic souls. ADHD present a lost ideal which can only inadequately be described as bond, circle of friends, family or community of kindred spirits. The group and their followers are an open collective without signed up membership which is held together and driven by an inescapable common desire to create. Also, unlike other bands, the new member Thómas Jónsson was not simply integrated into the group, but has grown into the band over a period of more than four years. Hence things always happen the way they must over time. Without any esoteric antics, age-old reflexes come to the fore just as much as all of the mechanisms and techniques of contemporary music making. The metaphysical is enwoven with highly physical dimensions. In any case, ADHD brings up the question what constitutes the deeper sense of collective immersion into sound. What ADHD creates in sound goes far beyond a merely biochemical reaction to sphere harmonics and rhythmic compressions, shifts and interactions They are the undisputed masters of psycho-acoustic deep mysticism.

This unrestrained stream of human oscillations which transcends all perimeters of genre and fascinates the jazz fan just as much as fans of rock and rave, also continues in ‘ADHD7’, even if the band has found a new form for this album. The Gesamtkunstwerk ADHD cannot be put into words. Such unparalleled timelessness in the here and now can only be experienced.
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