- Music
- 08 Feb 17
Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and collaborator, Ásgeir returns with his highly anticipated second album Afterglow.
Released on May 5, 2017, Afterglow has the hallmarks of an artist who is at home with his status as one of music’s most original new voices.
The album leaves behind the folk-tinged acoustics of 2014 debut album In The Silence and dives into melancholic electronica.
Once again collaborating with producer Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson, the lyrics for the album were written by Ásgeir's father - the renowned poet Einar Georg Einarsson - and his brothers Thorsteinn and Julius Robertsson.
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.)
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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.
Listen to lead single 'Unbound' here: