Ásgeir and Bríet

Einarsson might not have been around for all that long, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that he’s the next in succession in a long line of intelligent and complex musicians to hail from Iceland. In keeping with the likes of Bjork and Sigur Ros, who also hail from Einarsson’s homeland, his music - best described as a melodic form of folk - focuses primarily on subtlety, nuance and cleverness of construction; his career only began in earnest in 2012, but he quickly made a name for himself as one of the most exciting prospective talents of his generation. Einarsson played guitar in a band by the name of The Lovely Lion, but has found more success by standing on his own two feet.

He took the Icelandic charts by storm in 2012 with his debut album, ‘Dýrð í dauðaþögn’, topping both the albums charts and singles charts - the latter with ‘Hvitir skor’ - for several weeks at a time. He released an English translation of the album in late 2013, with assistance from the revered American singer-songwriter John Grant, one of Einarsson’s early champions. He’s gone on to release a couple of music videos from the English version of the album, including ‘Torrent’ and ‘King and Cross’.