“Gorgeous trip-hop piece where he parallels the vocal stylings of Justin Vernon
and the darkness of James Blake”
– The Observer
Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and collaborator; the mighty Ásgeir has shared brand new single “Stardust“, taken from his highly anticipated and daringly electronic second album Afterglow. “Stardust” follows on from the album’s first single “Unbound“, which has already amassed over 1.5 million streams on Spotify.
Listen to “Stardust” here: https://asgeir.lnk.to/StardustANZ
Out on Friday 5th May on Pod / Inertia Music / Rhythmethod, the Icelandic artist has spent three years honing and perfecting the eleven tracks that make up this magnificent and affecting body of work.
How do you follow up the fastest selling debut album in Icelandic history, a record that out-performed even national treasures Björk and Sigur Rós’ first releases? At first, the 24-year-old sensation pretended to those around him that the heat wasn’t on, that the stakes weren’t high. “I used to tell most people that I didn’t feel any pressure,” he laughs now. “But I was lying. I didn’t want to go into that discussion.”
Afterglow has all the confident hallmarks of an artist who’s now at home with his status as one of music’s most exciting new voices. “I consider myself lucky to have been able to go around the world with my friends to play,” Ásgeir says. That globe-trotting wisdom is keenly felt on Afterglow, which ambitiously balances icy electronic shades of Bon Iver, James Blake and Nick Murphy (fka Chet Faker) with soul, R&B and even gospel influences from different eras and places.
The album leaves behind the folk-tinged acoustics of 2014 debut album In The Silence and dives into melancholic electronica in its purest form. The spell-binding artist has also once again collaborated with producer Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson and his father – renowned poet Einar Georg Einarsson – for Afterglow, who is credited with writing the lyrics for the album alongside long-time musical collaborators, Ásgeir’s brother Thorsteinn and Julius Robertsson.
Talking about Afterglow, Ásgeir said: “I feel like I have achieved plenty already with this album, gotten to know myself better, feel like I’ve grown a lot. Not just because of the album, but it has definitely helped.”
Winner of the 2012 Album of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards, In The Silence sold so many copies that it is estimated one-tenth of the population now owns that release. (BBC Radio 2 host, Dermot O’Leary, once tested this theory out, calling a random number in the Icelandic phonebook – the woman who answered not only owned a copy, but Ásgeir’s mother had taught her son at school.) The ubiquity of the album (entitled Dýrð í dauðaþögn in Iceland) also caught the attention of musician John Grant, who immediately recognised Ásgeir’s musical talent and ended up translating the lyrics into English for the international version of the album.
The introverted and humble artist couldn’t have predicted the immensity of his success off the back of In The Silence – coming from the Icelandic town of Laugarbakki, populated by just 40 people. The album became the fastest selling debut from a home grown artist in Iceland, breaking all previous records and outselling Björk and Sigur Ros by a long way. At just 20 years of age, Ásgeir had become an overnight sensation.
On Australian shores, In The Silence was immediately adopted by triple j as Feature Album, and lead single “King & Cross” was voted into the Top 10 of that year’s Hottest 100. Ásgeir toured Australia three times for In The Silence, performing an ethereal twilight set at Splendour In The Grass for his first Australian appearance, selling out two shows at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, and was also personally invited by Alt-J to support their stadium tour in 2015.
Ásgeir – Afterglow
Out May 5th on Pod / Inertia Music / Rhythmethod
1.Underneath It
2. Unbound
3. Stardust
4. Here Comes The Wave In
5. Nothing
6. Dreaming
7.I Know You Know
8. New Day
9. Fennir yfir
10. Hold
11. Afterglow
