„Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced.” At least that’s what wikipedia claims it to be. 

To Zino Mikorey, mastering is much more than that. To him, mastering is the last creative step in the process. The last chance for the artist and the production team to make changes to the songs – both, sonically and emotionally. 

As a former music producer and mixing engineer, Zino developed the ability to listen to the final mixes from a musical as well as a technical standpoint. His focus being to find out what a song needs in order to make it shine. Sometimes it needs a lot of treatment and sound tweaks, sometimes you need to go back to the mix or the production state. Sometimes it is already where it’s supposed to be. In each scenario, it is the ability to sense the artists vision for a song, allowing him to make decisions that help the project. 

In addition, his musical background helps communicating with artists on a very effective and enjoyable level. Which, among others, might be the reason why artists like Nils Frahm, the Parcels, Olafur Arnalds and many more trust Zino to master their records.

Icelandic music has never been this present: Artists like Ólafur Arnalds, Björk and Sigur Rós -just to name a few- established a style of their own and gain massive impact. Due to the small popularity, there are only a few places musicians, producer, composer and engineers meet. One such place is the famous E7 studios in the harbor of Reykjavík.

Icelandic songwriter and composer Ragnar Ólafsson kindly takes time off recording his next solo album in his studio room in E7 to share his view on music creation and making a living as a musician under the special circumstances of Iceland’s rather small music industry.

He took us on a ride around his hometown, sharing his favourite places and the beautiful nature of Iceland.