After a career as a rock musician, Ríkhardur H. Fridriksson studied composition at the Reykjavík College of Music, Manhattan School of Music in New York, Accademia Chigiana in Siena and the Royal Dutch Conservatory in The Hague. While in The Hague, Fridriksson attended the Institute of Sonology and took courses in algorithmic composition at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He also participated in the new music course in Darmstadt. His composition teachers were Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Elias Tanenbaum, Franco Donatoni and Clarence Barlow. Furthermore Fridriksson has degrees in history and classical guitar performance.
His works have been performed and broadcast in many countries. He has received working grants from the Icelandic government, the DV cultural prize, and a prize at the Bourges sound art competition.
He lives in Reykjavik, composing and teaching electronic music. He is co-director of the Kopavogur Computer Music Centre, besides teaching Composition and Computer Music at Iceland Academy of the Arts and the Reykjavik College of Music.
His music falls into two general categories; he either makes pure electro-acoustic music, working mostly with natural sounds and their movement in space, or he does live improvisations, playing electric guitar, processed through live electronics. In that field he either appears alone or with the Icelandic Sound Company.