release date: Sep. 11, 2012
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson
label: One Little Indian - nationality: Iceland
Track highlights: 1. "Hærra" - 2. "Dýrð í dauðaþögn" - 4. "Leyndarmál" - 6. "Nýfallið regn" - 7. "Heimförin" (live version) - 8. "Að grafa sig í fönn"
Studio debut album by Icelandic Ásgeir Trausti is somewhere in the quiet region of dreampop, and it's easy to mention related artists like Emilíana Torrini, Jónsi, and múm, but that's also too narrow-minded, and one might just as well include Sigur Rós and Björk as musical familiarities - fact is Trausti makes his own blend and only his high-pitched singing voice and the Icelandic language guides the listener to the island of Iceland. Stylistically, it's in the genre of folk, and really: in the style of folktronica and singer / songwriter making American Bon Iver a closer musical stylist than any of the aforementioned.
The album won in four categories at the Icelandic Music Awards in 2012 including the Album of the Year prize, and it became the best-selling album debut in Iceland overtaking popular albums from Björk and Sigur Rós. A translated English-spoken version "In the Silence" was released in 2013 but this is the original album, and I do really enjoy it and also prefer this over Bon Iver.
Although, the quiet melancholy, which flows on the majority of the compositions, I really like it when there's a contrast with energetic outbursts like on "Nýfallið regn"; however, Dýrð í dauðaþögn is one fine and recommendable album.
