Switched On: Ásgeir

One of Iceland’s most successful exports, Ásgeir has spent the last decade between his record-breaking debut album Dýrð í dauðaþögn and today pushing the boundaries of his textured, thoughtful brand of folk-pop.

From the diminutive hamlet of Laugarbakki, Ásgeir is every bit as introverted, humble and unassuming as he is gifted. His unique songs are made all the more idiosyncratic by the fact that his 72-year-old father, retired school teacher and poet Einar Georg Einarsson, provides the majority of the lyrics. At only 20 years of age, Ásgeir released the fastest-selling debut album in Icelandic history. Winner of the 2012 Album of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards, it sold so many copies that it is estimated one-tenth of the population in Iceland owns the album.

His 2022 fourth studio album, Time On My Hands sees Ásgeir in a state of self-reflection and experimentation, having spent much of the last few years in his home and in the studio deeply engrossed in writing, recording, translating and producing. On this album, he’s entered new realms of composition, sensitively layering acoustics with electronics and brass. As with some of his previous work, most notably 2017’s Afterglow and 2020’s Bury The Moon, Ásgeir plays with euphoric and choral elements of electronic pop music while keeping a tight grasp on the introspective, vocal-lead style of the acoustica that made him famous.