Svavar Knútur
Listen to While the world burns
Icelandic Singer-Songwriter, Svavar Knútur, has seen his star rising steadily in the past couple of years. A troubadour of humble beginnings and rural upbringing, Svavar Knútur's music tells stories of love, tragedies, sadness and redemption in a harsh and hostile climate. His songs and vocal delivery always seem to strike a chord with his audiences, along with his decadently charming on stage persona, his concerts at times comprised of stories within stories within songs within songs. An accomplished storyteller, Svavar Knútur loves to bring his audiences on a journey of misery and redemption with both comic and tragic stops on the way.
A founding member of the Melodica festival organization, a series of international grass-roots songwriter festivals, Svavar Knútur has been a driving factor in both building bridges between international songwriter communities and strengthening the bonds of local folkies.
Svavar is the winner of the 2012 Berlin Troubadour competition, a yearly international singer/songwriter competition. His song, Ástarsaga úr fjöllunum (love story from the mountains), also propelled his band Hraun into the televised finals of the BBC’s musical competition “The next big thing.”
Svavar's debut solo Album, Kvöldvaka, came out in 2009 and has received great critical acclaim. His sophomore album, Amma (songs for my grandmother), a tribute to the heritage of icelandic folk music, held the top position in the Icelandic charts for two weeks and stayed in the top ten for months.
His third solo album, Ölduslóð (Way of the waves), out in september 2012 on Dimma Records, continues where Kvöldvaka left off, travelling through the land of happiness. The album has a very special guest appearance by Oscar winning singer/songwriter Markéta Irglová, which lends her beautiful voice and piano talents to a couple of songs on the album. Svavar Knútur's album art is a collaboration with his young daughter Dagbjört Lilja, an ever developing series of portraits of the artist.
Svavar Knútur has in the recent years toured Australia, the U.S.A., Canada, Great Britain and Europe extensively and is resolved to keep up the pace.