Ásgeir Trausti "Dýrð í dauðaþögn" (2012)

Dýrð í dauðaþögn
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.

múm "Finally We Are No One" (2002)

Finally We Are No One
release date: May 20, 2002
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Track highlights: 2. "Green Grass of Tunnel" - 3. "We Have a Map of the Piano" - 9. "I Can't Feel My Hand Any More, It's Alright, Sleep Still" - 11. "The Land Between Solar Systems"
[ full album ]

A studio album by múm. Like the debut album, it's electronic and glitch but there's more traditional songwriting in this, and not the same sketches of ideas that may or may not have been the case on the first album. This is also much closer to the style of Sigur Rós without copying, or following the same recipe, but in the way they succeed in making the sound more progressive and orchestrated.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

múm "Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK" (2001)

Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK [debut]
release date: Apr. 2, 2001
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,40]
producer: múm
label: Tugboat Records - nationality: Iceland

Track highlights: 2. "Smell Memory" - 3. "There Is a Number of Small Things" - 7. "The Ballad of the Broken Birdie Records" - 10. "Slow Bicycle"

Studio debut album by Icelandic band múm (who also made the soundtrack Blái hnötturinn, aka "The Blue Planet" in 2001). The band is a quartet consisting of Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason, Gunnar Örn Tynes, and the twin-sisters, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir [from 2007 solo artist aka Kría Brekkan] and Gyða Valtýsdóttir [2 men + 2 women]. The genre is electronic and stylistically it's glitch pop with a progressive and / or ambient touch of idm and folktronica [electronica fused with folk / folklore elements].
It's a small but quite interesting album that just feels like a rather warm and cute collection of somewhat longy [typically 5-7 mins running time], though never too long compositions.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, NME, Mojo 4 / 5, The Guardian 5 / 5 stars]