Asgeir Asgeirsson

Originally, a coincidence led Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, a jazz/pop guitarist and a household name on the Icelandic music scene, to start studying the music of Bulgaria back in 2010, where he fell in love with the music of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Ásgeir has since traveled to India, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Greece, and Bulgaria for studies. It was on one of those trips to Istanbul in 2016 where he got the idea to travel with his own musical heritage to the East and compose new and arrange old Icelandic melodies with the flavor of some of his favorite musical heritages.

Ásgeir has since recorded three albums with over 40 musicians from eight countries. He started the journey in Istanbul, where he recorded with some of Turkey’s finest musicians, Yurdal Tokcan, Göksel Baktagir, Derya Turkan, and Oray Yay, and released the album "Two Sides of Europe" in 2017. In volume 2, he took the Icelandic folk song to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, to a longtime friend, Borislav Zgurovski, and his band, the legendary Trakia Ensemble, to record "Travelling Through Cultures," released in 2018. The final chapter of the trilogy is "The Persian Path," released in autumn 2020, recorded in Tehran and Iceland with some of Iran's finest musicians led by Hamid Khansari. In this project, Iceland's finest female vocalist, Sigridur Thorlacius, sings all of the vocals to give the albums a unique blend of Eastern instruments, rhythms, and feel. Ásgeir plays saz, oud, bouzouki, tamboura, and electric guitar to give this trilogy an even more unique sound.

For further information and interview requests, please contact:
Ásgeir Ásgeirsson
asgeirja@simnet.is
00354-8633943