In the multitude of failed New Year resolutions comes my resolve to branch out in my music taste and endeavour to listen to different genres besides my preferred gentle acoustic folk. In line with the popular saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, however, what inevitably follows is another artist who combines Bon Iver haunting vocals with The XX’s stunning clarity.
Yet whilst Ásgeir fits very neatly into the melodic folk bracket, the Icelandic singer is set apart from the masses with his definitively foreign diction. On top of this the hidden layering to his music gives him an edge more like James Blake than Ben Howard.
At just twenty-one years old, Ásgeir’s album is surprisingly vulnerable and affected, with heartfelt lyrics, owing in part to the contributions of his seventy-two year old father. The singer-songwriter experiments with the new genre of folktronica and uses his alluring vocals, coupled with dramatic piano movements and acoustic guitar sounds, to convey these second-hand emotions.
His debut album, In the Silence was released in the UK last week, although it was recorded when he was only nineteen years old. Unrivalled in its success in Iceland, the record outsold the likes of Björk and Sigur Rós at such a speed that it is believed one in ten of the countries population owns a copy. Tracks to listen out for on the album are the catchy Was There Nothing? which gained some commercial success after its feature in Made In Chelsea, and, my favourite, the slightly more upbeat sounding Summer Guest. Ásgeir’s track Torrent is currently featured as iTunes single of the week, further cementing his rise up the UK charts.
If you are interested in hearing more from Ásgeir he is touring Europe over the next few months, playing at Union Chapel (my all-time favourite venue) when he finishes up in London early this April.