The return of Asgeir: Take me to an icefield of Iceland

In summer especially in midday when it is the hottest part of the day, one would be tempted to use smartphone weather applications. It would be a world tour by tapping on the screen with fingertips. By surfing the temperatures in all parts of the world, one can soon set his or her eye on "Stockholm 16" and "Reykjavik 9." 

It is estimated that the sense of sight provides approximately 80 percent of all five senses for cognition of the outside world. Auditory sense comes next, which is the second important sense, but not as important as the sense of sight. Music stimulates auditory sense in a different way compared with sensing daily life. The magic of imaginative power and inspiration comes from the auditory sense that music brings about. This is like a miracle of a purple aurora floating on the achromatic colored sky of the brain that is dominated by common sense and weariness. 

Asgeir, a sing-a-song writer from Iceland, takes you to a far away icefield. He has voice like a mystery floating on the horizontal line of pure white. Fast broken chords from piano and holy voice that has beautiful melodies. incomplete bar, polyrhythm, fast electronic sound with irregular beat take the soul to a maze of time. This is what "Afterglow," the new album in three years released by Asgeir, provides to music listeners. 

The next music is from that of the band Sigur Ros, also from Iceland. Its 2002 album "Untitled 1" takes you to a church in the Arctic region in Tromsø, Norway through the mirror of music. It is as if the switch of a projector is turned on. The sadness and sorrow locked in a cave of a dark mind comes out from the heart and kneels upon the altar. Look up the stained glass of the high ceiling and a bright rainbow pours down like a heavy rainfall. 

imi@donga.com