Hailing from Reykjavík, Iceland and founded in 1999, Apparat Organ Quartet is a band that originally included the musicians Hörður Bragason, Músikvatur, Úlfur Eldjárn and Jóhann Jóhannsson. They were soon joined by drummer Þorvaldur Gröndal, replaced in 2001 by Arnar Geir Ómarsson, drummer of the Icelandic rock band HAM. Lacking the time to dedicate himself to the group because of his solo projects, Jóhann Jóhannsson left the band in 2012.

The band was originally conceived by Jóhann Jóhannsson as a collaborative project for a concert series curated by Kitchen Motors, a record label and art collective founded by Jóhannsson, Hilmar Jensson and Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir.