Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Níelsdóttir

‘Grandma’ was 70 years-old when she began recording songs in the quiet of her home. Seven years later, she had 59 albums with over 600 eccentric compositions based on a Casio keyboard layered with ‘found’ sounds sampled from around the kitchen sink, toy instruments or pets.

‘Grandma’ Sigríður Níelsdóttir is a cult figure that for years has inspired the Icelandic music scene. Musicians Mugison, múm and Sin Fang of Seabear appear in this waggish half-animated film to pay homage Grandma lo-fi and her pop-freak beats. Níelsdóttir is a fairly-tale figure – a melancholic, poetic and amusing elderly woman with an amazingly untamed imagination. She helps pigeons with a broken wing, which she employs in a bird choir, turns a kitchen mixer into a helicopter and aluminum foil into a fire. This analog self-taught artist proves that not technology but creativity matters in art. The film took several years to produce and as a collaborative effort of three artists. It emanates a stylishly vintage charm, seduces with playful animation, and enchants with music that balances kitsch and freshness.