Tracking down the Five Days music
Long time no post! The past week I’ve been glued to the BBC Drama Five Days. One highlight of the show was the music, especially the haunting song that played whenever the going was getting really tragic. Haje and I couldn’t identify the vocalist, and nor could Google (shameful!). All we could tell was that she was Swedish or Icelandic (it was hard to tell). This warranted some detective work. I’m posting this here in case it helps anyone else who’s searching for it.
The credits listed Magnus Fiennes as the music producer (who Wikipedia informs me is the brother of Ralph and Joseph). If anyone could tell me, it would be him. Of course, I couldn’t find a way to contact him, but I did find his agent. I dashed them off a quick email last night, then promptly forgot about the whole thing until this afternoon when I get a reply.
Thankyou for your interest in Magnus Fiennes’ work on Five Days. He is
delighted with the response he has had from it! The female soloist was
Heidrunanna Bjornsdottir, Im afraid I dont know who she is represented
by but more of her music, seperate from her work on Five Days, is
available on Myspace. At the moment we are not involvred in any plans to
release the soundtrack. The best people to discuss this with are the
BBC. If we have any news on this release all info will be available on
our website in the future www.coolmusicltd.com
Some more digging around identified her as Heidrun Anna Bjornsdottir (or should that be Heiðrún Anna Björnsdóttir?), an Icelandic singer currently based in London. Back in the day she was part of Icelandic band GusGus (whose other members have included Emilíana Torrini, who I am a fan of. Others may know her as the singer of Gollum’s Song from LotR, but her own stuff is loads better.). Her previous band was called Gloss (they have some stuff on iTunes and some singles on Amazon
Success! Now we just need the Beeb to release the soundtrack.
February 17th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
My wife keeps on about this music, as she heard it in another BBC show (Lilies). So I decided to spend time looking for it too. Apart from finding a ‘MySpace’ site where everyone seems to be, pretends to be or wants to be associated with her, I have drawn up a reasonable blank on her. A couple of hanging-in-there websites mentioning her disbanded band Gloss, (no not this site here!!) are still in half-life mode, slowly decaying, hoping that they [Gloss] will reform maybe.
Fat chance. All good bands seem to crumble in the end. Amy Lee, for example (Evanescence) doesn’t seem to be around much lately. Shame.
Ah, the trait of us humans.
Anyway, eventually, I came to this site. Aha! Factual and up to date information too!
I actually work for the BBC (TV) and have tried to get info on this subject, but being as I am a mere cameraman who spends more time on the road filming, than in a studio I can now rest a bit until more information turns up. Why have I written this fragmented email? Dunno!
Oh yes, it was to say “Thanks” for doing all of that legwork. Now I can ask a few more people in their ‘departments’, and try to get a copy of the mix. Chances are that I’ll end up filming her one day anyway. Don’t want to wait too long though as I like that kind of spectral music. Spectral? Oh you know what I mean.
A big thankyou. Dave (for Alexandra’s benefit)
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:33 am
I too found the music haunting (spectral sounds like a good word to describe it Dave) and have been keeping an eye out for who sang it and where it might be obtained. Thanks also from me for the detective work - now have to keep my eyes open to see if the song/music is made available in some form. Like Dave, my wife also watched/enjoyed Lilies - except she missed the last episode (because “I” forgot to set the PVR) so looks like we are going to have to buy a DVD (which thankfully will then make an excellent gift for my Mum who will have seen none of it but will enjoy it).
By the way I’m impressed that you decided on Swedish or Icelandic - although I had actually wondered at the time about Bjork - no particular idea as to why though.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:08 pm
I loved Gloss, they had a couple of great tracks, one of which was ‘Lonely In Paris’. Back then she was known only as Heidrun Anna, and I had thought she was Swedish. The similarities to Nina Persson were close, you see. Then Gloss disbanded and I had no idea what happened to her - I thought maybe she got married and had kids..
I had no idea she was in GusGus! Even though they featured on my playlist pretty frequently..
Thanks for the info, great investigative work!
Cheers!
October 4th, 2007 at 5:56 am
lol dave likes evanescence.
October 5th, 2007 at 10:03 am
I believe she has also recorded a duet with a singer songwriter called Lucien Caine…..called ‘She Loves To Lose’ I have seen it on myspace at myspace.com/luciencainemusic. Its quite a Serge Gainsbourg-esque sounding tune….and very saucy!
October 25th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Here in America the HBO Special Five Days is in it’s 4th episode and has many people tracking the story. I noticed the music and voice rather quickly and was also determined to find out how I can get the soundtrack for myself. If and when the FIVE DAYS songs are released I will be VERY happy.. Someone please let me know if the songs come out sooner over there so I can please download or purchase.. Can’t wait..
November 16th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Does anyone know if the music from FIVE DAYS can be found on lime wire or any other music site or were those songs written only for the series and are unreleased? OH and i was thinking Bjork too but the voice wasn’t edgy enough…clearly Icelandic though! good pick up!
October 9th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Thanks for this note on the web. I too was curious who was the singer (knew it was icelandic as I understood every word - but didn’t recognize the voice). I found your page after a bit of a hunt - strange that they don’t credit this anywhere.