Here is an old recording that was found in storage after Dad died in 2011. Is it a recording that his parents, ie. my grandparents did, possibly in a few days, but there is one date, which is February 3, 1963.
My grandfather was Jón Björnsson (b.1903 – d.1985) from Karlsskála in Reyðarfjörður, east Iceland, but he lived most of his life in Reykjavík.
My grandmother Guðrún Bergþóra Bergsdóttir (b.1904 – d.1972) lived all her life in Reykjavík.
The reason for the recording was that Dad was studying electrical engineering in Germany. He was among the first engineering students who left Iceland to study in Europe after World War II.
Although there was a telephone between Iceland and mainland Europe, it was not possible for the public to make daily calls. But in those days it was customary to correspond and send letters. Around and after 1960, people began to acquire tape recorders and then the idea arose among Icelandic students to not only send letters, but also to use this new medium where people could hear the voices of their loved ones.
Unfortunately, not much of these recordings have survived, because tapes were expensive at these times. It was therefore customary to send the same tape back and forth with new recorded material each time. Something I unfortunately also did 10-20 years later with the cassettes.
Here in this recording, my grandfather and grandmother talk about the social life in Reykjavík, talk about the high frequency of accidents, possibly marine accidents that were almost a monthly occurrence, not least in the winter of those years. Then they talk about friends who are moving into a new flat, others having children and then others buying a new car. Grandfather talks about having a dream of me (Magnus) from when I was young, until I was old. Then he calls me, and asks me If I recognize his voice.
Then he mentions a beautifully carved cigar box that I inherited from my grandmother’s brother, Magnús Bergsson, who was a baker, but later went into the fishing industry with his son-in-law.
Most of the material on the recording is, however, mainly a recording from the Icelandic national broadcast service (RUV), which was at that time the only Icelandic radio station. The program was sent out on Long Wave so it could reach the whole country, but only during the day time.
Both grandparents enjoy listening to music and or dancing at all times and have fun. Therefore, you can hear both Icelandic piano music and Icelandic opera. At the end of the recording there is an educational episode about „automation“ in production and machinery, which my grandparents have been thinking my father would like to hear in Germany.
This recording below was in incredibly bad condition and of very poor recording quality. The volume was extremely fluctuating, probably because it wasn’t recorded on the same day. You could barely hear what was said in the recording due to the 50Hz hum and accompanying harmonics frequencies. Grandpa actually mentions in the recording that both the radio and the tape recorder are broken. The recorder even broke apart the tape so he had to fix it.
I was never able to clean this recording acceptably when I had the Izotope RX5 or RX8. It wasn’t until I got the RX10 that it went much better. However, I didn’t spend a lot of time cleaning everything or fixing it, simply because it would have changed the character of the bad sound quality that people were struggling with at these times. At least now you could hear what was being said.
The reason I released this recording on the web now, is that earlier this month it was 120 years since my grandmother was born.
I think it is worth mentioning that, some years ago I published another tape recording from the sixties, which was most likely a multimedia message from my parents in Germany to my grandparents in Iceland. It was from the Christmas 1964
(mp3 256kbps / 64Mb)
Recorder: unknown open reel deck.
Transferred from Revox B77 MkII to Sound devices 744 (24/48)
Mic. Unkown
Pix: Jón Björsson and Bergþóra Bergsóttir at home, close to the year 1964
Recording location: Blönduhlíð 3. Reykjavik
HLJÓÐMYND - SOUNDIMAGE 