ASGEIR – JULIA (GREEN VINYL) - LP •

ASGEIR – JULIA (GREEN VINYL) - LP •UPC: 5016958108175 Label: ONE LITTLE INDEPENDENT Format: LP Release Date: February 13, 2026 In stock items ship within 48 hours Julia, the albums emotional centrepiece, draws from a chilling Icelandic poem. A ghost story wrapped in eerie pedal steel, as a heartbroken woman returns from the dead to reunite with her former lover, forever. It is cinematic in scope but intimate in tone, blurring the line between myth and memory. Sweeping and emotive NME

UPC: 5016958108175
Label: ONE LITTLE INDEPENDENT
Format: LP
Release Date: February 13, 2026
In stock items ship within 48 hours

‘Julia’, the album’s emotional centrepiece, draws from a chilling Icelandic poem. A ghost story wrapped in eerie pedal steel, as a heartbroken woman returns from the dead to reunite with her former lover, forever. It is cinematic in scope but intimate in tone, blurring the line between myth and memory.

“Sweeping and emotive” – NME

“Widescreen and dramatic” – Brooklyn Vegan

“A mixture of reminiscence, wonder, heartache, clarity” – Atwood

On his fifth studio album, ‘Julia’, out February 13th via One Little Independent Records, Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir enters intriguing and uncharted territory. After years of engaging translators such as John Grant and working with the poetry of his father, Einar Georg Einarsson, Ásgeir has penned his lyrics by himself for the first time in his long and celebrated career. The result is a deeply contemplative body of work, steeped in nostalgia, that sees Ásgeir meditating on his past regrets as well as his hopes for the future, guided by the spectre of the album’s title character.

Ásgeir has long been lauded for his intricate folk-pop, lush production, and wistful, emotive falsetto. ‘Julia’ marks a shift toward not just lyrical self-reliance but cathartic directness, songs that feel not just exquisitely performed, but lived in. “This was kind of the first time I was writing lyrics totally on my own,” he shares. “It was scary. I’m still trying to find myself within that. But I tried to open myself up and I learned a lot through that process, and it was definitely therapeutic for me.”

This new sense of vulnerability threads through the album’s ten tracks, written and recorded over the course of nearly two years. Many of the songs were first composed on guitar, with Ásgeir aiming for simplicity, prioritising melody, clarity, and meaning. The production, co-developed with longtime collaborator Guðm. “Kiddi” Kristinn Jónsson, remains organic and understated, allowing Ásgeir’s voice, and importantly his voice as a writer, to come forward.

Throughout ‘Julia’, Ásgeir revisits the past with an unflinching eye. ‘Quiet Life’ is a warm, thoughtful invitation into Ásgeir’s world of self-reflection. It sets the tone for an album that is spacious, seamless, and earnest. The production is subtle yet expansive, drawing on earthy textures that support the album’s introspective mood.

On ‘Against the Current’, Ásgeir captures the quiet defiance of self-reclamation. Written and recorded almost entirely by himself, with a brass arrangement from Samuel Jón Samúelsson, the track builds into a triumphant swell. Lyrically, it is about finally seeing oneself clearly, shaking expectations and embracing the possibility of change. “The lyrics paint a picture of me seeing myself really for the first time. Seeing that I’ve been stuck in my ways, letting other people’s opinions of me change who I am and wanting to break from that pattern. To not let anyone, including myself, put me in a box and not limit my potential through what ideas someone might have of me. Realising that there’s many versions of me that need to shine as well. I could start a black metal band tomorrow if I wanted to.”

‘Smoke’ was recorded live with a four-piece band and later overlaid with pump organ. The track revolves around “feeling like you’ve lost your inner voice. Some years ago, I felt like I ignored it so much that in the end it faded away, both in terms of music and life, and it felt terrible. I felt like I had gone against it so much that it stopped speaking to me. In a way I’ve always felt like that’s a feminine, motherly voice that leads you in the right direction.” That maternal influence is a recurring theme across the LP, and, in many ways, ‘Julia’ is a concept that has come to embody Ásgeir’s personal journey. Here, production is minimal, letting the melancholy shine through, the ache of disconnect.

Elsewhere, the album turns toward the future. ‘Ferris Wheel’ is an anthem of quiet optimism, born from conversations with his girlfriend about abandoning the familiar and pursuing long-held dreams, of a slower life by the sea, of daring to imagine something new. “It’s about dreaming again,” he says. “Something I had stopped allowing myself to do.”

Nashville’s Nathaniel Smith, a cellist Ásgeir describes as “a wizard”, adds atmospheric bedding here and throughout, improvising melodies that give life and dimension to tracks in ways Ásgeir hadn’t previously envisioned.

‘Universe Beyond’ is a tragedy that imagines the final thoughts of our protagonist Julia before she walks into a lake, the prelude to the macabre tale that unfolds on the album’s title track. ‘Julia’, the album’s emotional centrepiece, draws from a chilling Icelandic poem. A ghost story wrapped in eerie pedal steel, as a heartbroken woman returns from the dead to reunite with her former lover, forever. It is cinematic in scope but intimate in tone, blurring the line between myth and memory.

Rhythmically restless, ‘Sugar Clouds’ is built in an unusual 7/8 time signature that mirrors the tension of its theme, a yearning for fulfilment and inner peace. “I don’t think I’ve ever truly felt that sense of being satisfied,” Ásgeir admits. “But this song imagines what it might feel like.”

‘Stranger’ explores the feeling of becoming unknown to oneself, a consistent undercurrent of the record. The track drifts gently in mood, evoking distance and subtle transformation, as if awakening in a life that feels unfamiliar, but not necessarily unwelcome.

‘In the Wee Hours’ is a reckoning with the version of yourself that used to live for the night. It captures the moment when the appeal of late-night bars and blurred conversations begins to wear thin. It is a vivid realisation that some parts of life no longer fit, a song about ageing out of recklessness, watching the clock tick into morning, and wondering whether anything meaningful really happens after that.

The album closes with ‘Into the Sun’, a hopeful coda and release. After moving through doubts and regrets, the final track emerges into light. There is a sense of acceptance here, not of perfection, but of the self in all its complexity.

These recordings mirror the spirit of Ásgeir’s recent return to solo touring, over 70 shows across Europe, the Nordics and Iceland, often in small churches or quiet venues. Those performances reconnected him with the core of his music; storytelling, presence and shared stillness. Musically, the record leans into Ásgeir’s long-held love of folk and Americana. He cites influences ranging from Daniel Lanois, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Drake to contemporary artists like Adrianne Lenker, Dina Ögon, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Saya Gray.

TRACK LIST:

1. Quiet Life
2. Against The Current
3. Smoke
4. Ferris Wheel
5. Universe
6. Julia
7. Sugar Clouds
8. Stranger
9. In The Wee Hours
10. Fade To Nothing