Northern Europe
The sound of Iceland
A population smaller than most cities producing a wildly disproportionate amount of post-rock and ambient music. The cliché is that the landscape explains it; the more useful fact is that everyone plays in everyone else's band.
94 artists in the catalog.
What Iceland does that nowhere else does
Genres far more common here than across the rest of the catalog. The multiplier is how much more common, weighted by how many artists carry it.
Five records to start with
Not a canon — a way in. Each one links to what it is, who it's for and where to go next.
Icelandic artists worth walking into
Ordered by how much we can tell you, not just by how well-known they are.
Björk
alternative rock · art pop
Where to start →Sigur Rós
post-metal · post-rock
Where to start →Ólafur Arnalds
ambient music · experimental music
Where to start →GusGus
electronica
Where to start →Víkingur Ólafsson
classical music
Where to start →Jóhann Jóhannsson
ambient music · art music
Where to start →Of Monsters and Men
indie folk · indie pop
Where to start →Low Roar
ambient music
Where to start →Hildur Guðnadóttir
electronic music
Where to start →Ásgeir Trausti
traditional folk music
Where to start →Daði Freyr Pétursson
pop music
Where to start →Bubbi Morthens
rock music
Discography →