Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
On his fifth studio album, ‘Julia’, out February 13th via One Little Independent Records, Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir enters intriguing and uncharted territory. After years of engaging translators such as John Grant and working with the poetry of his father, Einar Georg Einarsson, Ásgeir has penned his lyrics by himself for the first time in his long and celebrated career. The result is a deeply contemplative body of work, steeped in nostalgia, that sees Ásgeir meditating on his past regrets as well as his hopes for the future, guided by the spectre of the album’s title character.
New single ‘Smoke’ was recorded live with a four-piece band and later overlaid with pump organ. The track revolves around “feeling like you’ve lost your inner voice. Some years ago, I felt like I ignored it so much that in the end it faded away, both in terms of music and life, and it felt terrible. I felt like I had gone against it so much that it stopped speaking to me. In a way I’ve always felt like that’s a feminine, motherly voice that leads you in the right direction.” That maternal influence is a recurring theme across the LP, and, in many ways, ‘Julia’ is a concept that has come to embody Ásgeir’s personal journey. A stripped-back live session video accompanies the release, offering an intimate, candid glimpse behind the curtain. Here, the arrangement remains minimal, letting the melancholy shine through, the ache of disconnect.
Ásgeir has long been lauded for his intricate folk-pop, lush production, and wistful, emotive falsetto. ‘Julia’ marks a shift toward not just lyrical self-reliance but cathartic directness, songs that feel not just exquisitely performed, but lived in. “This was kind of the first time I was writing lyrics totally on my own,” he shares. “It was scary. I’m still trying to find myself within that. But I tried to open myself up and I learned a lot through that process, and it was definitely therapeutic for me.”
This new sense of vulnerability threads through the album’s ten tracks, written and recorded over the course of nearly two years. Many of the songs were first composed on guitar, with Ásgeir aiming for simplicity, prioritising melody, clarity, and meaning. The production, co-developed with longtime collaborator Guðm. “Kiddi” Kristinn Jónsson, remains organic and understated, allowing Ásgeir’s voice, and importantly his voice as a writer, to come forward.
These recordings mirror the spirit of Ásgeir’s recent return to solo touring, over 70 shows across Europe, the Nordics and Iceland, often in small churches or quiet venues. Those performances reconnected him with the core of his music; storytelling, presence and shared stillness. Musically, the record leans into Ásgeir’s long-held love of folk and Americana. He cites influences ranging from Daniel Lanois, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Drake to contemporary artists like Adrianne Lenker, Dina Ögon, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Saya Gray.
In ‘Julia’, Ásgeir doesn’t just look back, he carries memories forward, reshaping them. These songs live in the space between reflection and reinvention, where the past softens, and the future’s horizon comes into focus.
Tour dates
10.10 – Pratteln – z7 Konzertfabrik
11.10 – Vienna – Ottakringer Brauerei
12.10 – Stuttgart – LKA Longhorn
14.10 – Krakow – Klub Studio
15.10 – Prague – ROXY
16.10 – Berlin – Huxleys Neue Welt
17.10 – Hamburg – DOCKS
18.10 – Copenhagen – Poolen
19.10 – Lund – Mejeriet
21.10 – Helsinki – House of Culture
22.10 – Tampere – Tavara Asema
24.10 – Gothenburg – Filmstudion
25.10 – Stockholm – Fållan
26.10 – Oslo – Sentrum Scene
Tracklist
- Quiet Life
- Against the Current
- Smoke
- Ferris Wheel
- Universe Beyond
- Julia
- Sugar Clouds
- Stranger
- In the Wee Hours
- Into the Sun
