For a windy, rocky and extremely cold island with a population of around 400,000, Iceland punches above its weight musically: Björk, Sigur Rós and Hildur Guðnadóttir are but a few famous examples. 

Sigurgeir Agnarsson, principal cellist with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and teacher at the Reykjavík College of Music, is certain that this is a result of Iceland’s publicly funded music school system. This enables almost all children to study music and also fosters a close-knit musical community; appropriately, Agnarsson’s first solo album is called Nánd, meaning nearby, intimate. On a personal level, Nánd comprises works by Agnarsson’s childhood friend Hugi Guðmundsson (b. 1977) and Guðmundsson’s uncle Hafliði Hallgrímsson (b. 1941), both renowned, award-winning composers.

Coniuctio (2024) is a set of five meditative chapters that began life as musical embodiments of time spent with of Agnarsson, for whom Guðmundsson composed it. Majestic and spacious, Aluvium (2015) is named for and inspired by the phenomenon of glacial rivers flowing over vast sands and forking in different directions before rejoining and flowing to the sea....