Hermigervill

The album is a collection of mostly instrumental cover versions culled from Icelandic pop music history. The selection is not your obvious pop standards, rather the cult hits that every generation rediscovers and makes their own.
Sveinbjörn, as Hermigervill’s mother calls him, is a multi-instrumentalist and plays every instrument on the album. The soundscape is mostly electronic, with classic analogue synths such as the Moog at the forefront, but he widens the sound with violin, guitar, background vocals and even the occasional curveball, such as his amazing Theremin rendition of Sveitin milli sanda.
A lot of the pleasure of listening to this album comes from the nostalgia of listening to these songs that have bubbled under the national consciousness for years, and the surprises that his take on the songs sometimes bring. That being said, I can imagine that this collection could delight people hearing these songs for the first time; this is after all a collection of some of Iceland’s best-written pop classics. This is my favourite album of the summer, so far.