Album

Albums are more than collections of songs.

They are worlds. Emotional landscapes. Political provocations. Time capsules. Magic spells. They soundtrack our first loves and heartbreaks, our rebellions, our griefs, our hopes for the future. Long after their release, they continue to shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

Album is a new stage work by Alexander Roberts and Ásrún Magnúsdóttir that stages seminal music albums live and in their entirety, from the first track to the last.

At its heart, the work asks a simple question: what is an album? And how much is it owned by the people who have lived with it, argued with it, danced to it, cried to it and carried it through their lives?

For each edition of Album, a house band, dancers from the Iceland Dance Company and a group of listeners recruited from the city come together around a single record. Together they attempt to enter the album’s world: listening closely, performing it, interrogating it and discovering what it has to say to the present moment.

Part concert, part listening party and part collective act of interpretation, Album explores how music gathers people together and asks what kinds of albums, and what kinds of listening, the world needs now.