As part of the Sydney Opera House ‘Music At The House’ summer series, Icelandic artist Ásgeir would regale Sydney audiences with his indie-electro-folk sound and play two shows at the iconic landmark venue on the same night, an early evening and later evening show. We took in his second performance, and boy was it a magical experience.
Forewarned that there would be no support and that the show would commence at 9:00pm I ensured a prompt arrival to the Concert Hall at 8:40pm and took my seat. The hall filled up rapidly and only a few minutes after 9:00pm the house lights went down and some wistful folk instrumental music readied us for Ásgeir and his band’s entrance. I wasn’t overly familiar with his work before attending this show and was anticipating that I’d spend a good portion confused by not being able to understand his native Icelandic singing.
Interestingly he opens with “King and Cross” with its multitude of electronic sounds and rolling synth drum beats accompanied by a mini orchestra featuring some violins, a cello, and a mini brass section. My fears were unwarranted about his performance though, when after only a couple of songs he begins playing “Frost” with its electro raindrop beats which is immediately followed up with “Summer Guest” and features some delicate finger plucked acoustic guitar from our frontman and both of which are sung in English.
One of the highlights of his set is his cover of Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box”, and anybody who truly owns their version and can make it feel entirely new deserves kudos. Asgeir utilises his sweet falsetto and softly caressed piano keys to give the song a beautiful feel of lament and it soon builds into this soaring crescendo accompanied by all the various electro-synth sounds the band can cram into it and yet none of the noise manages to drown out his vocals. It’s these vocals that lead the way on another song called “On That Day” but this time our frontman is all by himself with just an electric guitar and creates a whole new intimate dynamic in this gorgeous room. The closing song for the night being “Torrent” with its staccato piano chords overlaying marching beat drums that cuts in and out and you can hear the audience clapping along with the drums, even if they can’t keep up vocally.
Ásgeir is a mystic wonder to behold live, and it’s no surprise his first appearances back as part of the Splendour In The Grass 2014 tour ended up selling out and having plenty of punters show up for his SITG sets. There are a number of elements at play here, from his ethereal singing voice helped in part by the Icelandic language. Then there’s his bandmates who add layers and depth musically and vocally to the sound. The music itself goes through various incarnations, sometimes it’s folk, sometimes it’s got some EDM and electro moments, and others it’s very indie rock. For someone so young there’s a lot of potential here and it will be interesting to see if he manages to retain that magic with his next record and with even more live performances under his already expanding belt.
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