Ásgeir

Ásgeir’s music is perhaps one of the most profound. After enjoying great success in his homeland with his debut album, the eloquent Icelandic artist has greatly expanded his audience with an English re-release entitled In The Silence. One of Iceland’s most sincere and sensitive musicians, Ásgeir returns today with the most courageous and timeless project of his career.

Bury The Moon – or Sátt in Icelandic, begins with heartache and flight. Ásgeir contemplates the disintegration of a long relationship, and makes the decision to escape, to lose himself in the vastness of the Icelandic countryside. He spends the winter confined to a tiny holiday home, alone with his guitar and his endless reflections on love and loss. The songs come to life. Acoustic meditations mingle with synthetic wanderings: Ásgeir is finally ready to return. “I only chose the guitar and piano because I wanted the album to be simple, raw and unpretentious. I wanted the songs to speak for themselves. “Ásgeir’s fresh ideas are deployed in the studio and he brings together a team of like-minded musicians and invites lyricists to help shape this new material. In fact, Ásgeir has always worked this way: he sculpts the melodies and arrangements, while the words of his peers balance the whole. Ásgeir’s first song for this album, ‘Living Water’, is a beautiful ode to Iceland’s natural resources and the urgent need to protect them. The song opens with a poem by Ásgeir’s father, Einar Georg Einarsson.

Einar Georg Einarsson wrote much of his son’s lyrics in the early days, and this collaboration has only strengthened their relationship. “The lyrical side of the album is, at times, a bit more personal for me now, because my father and I did it together. We spent a lot of time together. At times, Bury The Moon reflects the personal and painful experience of Ásgeir’s isolation during the composition process. Rattled Snow’ captures the thrill of the Icelandic cold, while ‘Lazy Giants’ evokes the dark ghost of the economic crisis. Youth’ tells the story of childhood, with lyrics by Ásgeir and his father. Musically, the album is as straightforward as it is surprising, taking the listener on a journey between delicious folk passages and clinical electronic tablecloths. The album is a bridge between the intimate and the outside world, linking the undeniable acoustic power of Ásgeir to brilliant and addictive new ideas. “Giving the song what it needs, and nothing more” was the guiding principle in the creation of the album.

By accepting his own imperfections, Ásgeir produced perhaps his most remarkable work. American lyricist and Reykjavik resident John Grant helped him translate the lyrics into English. The voice, however, could only belong to one person. It was this same voice that raised the first album, ‘In The Silence’, to the status it is known for. But far from being disturbed by the success, Ásgeir concentrates on his art and his fans.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the reactions of people,” he says. “I wanted the project to be somewhere like going back to his roots, and to focus on honesty: honest songs with strong melodies and lyrics.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)