Skúli Sverrisson (born 23 October 1966) is an Icelandic composer and bass guitarist. He has worked with musicians

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Free ...

, Derek Bailey,

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

Jon Hassell Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various w ...

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

Arto Lindsay Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation ''No New York''. In ...

, and composers

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...

Jóhann Jóhannsson Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson (; 19 September 1969 – 9 February 2018) was an Icelandic composer who wrote music for a wide array of media including theatre, dance, television, and film. His work is stylised by its blending of traditional orchest ...

, and

Hildur Guðnadóttir Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir (born 4 September 1982) is an Icelandic musician and composer. A classically trained cellist, she has played and recorded with the bands Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and h ...

. He is known for his work as artistic director for

Ólöf Arnalds Ólöf Arnalds (born 4 January 1980) is an Icelandic singer/songwriter and indie musician who has been active within the Icelandic music scene since the early 2000s. She was a touring member of múm for five years from 2003 before launching he ...

, recordings with

Blonde Redhead Blonde Redhead is an American alternative rock band composed of Kazu Makino (vocals, keys/rhythm guitar) and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace (drums/keys and lead guitar/bass/keys/vocals, respectively) that formed in New York City in 1993. ...

, and as musical director for

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

. Skúli released duo albums with Anthony Burr, Oskar Gudjonsson, and Hilmar Jensson. He has been a member of Pachora, Alas No Axis, the

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer. Holdsworth was known for his esoteric and idiosyncratic usage of advanced music theory concepts, especially with respe ...

group, and the

Ben Monder Ben Monder (born May 24, 1962) is an American modern jazz guitarist. Biography Monder started playing guitar when he was eleven, after two years on violin. From 1979–84, he attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music, the University of Miam ...

group. His solo works include ''Seremonie'' in 1997 and ''Sería'' in 2006. ''Seria'' was chosen Best Album of the Year by the Icelandic Music Awards. Skúli plays

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

, double bass, and

charango The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish during c ...

, in addition to bass guitar. He has composed music for the Icelandic Dance Company (Open Source), the

National Theatre of Iceland The National Theatre of Iceland (NTI) ( is, Þjóðleikhúsið, pronounced ) in Reykjavík, is the national theatre of Iceland. The theater, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, was formally opened on 20 April 1950. Since 2020, the artistic directo ...

(Volva), and films and installations such as ''Welcome'' and ''Music for Furniture'' with Olafur Thordason, ''Spatial Meditation'' with Claudia Hill, and ''When it was Blue'' with filmmaker Jennifer Reeves. Skúli founded Seria, an ensemble featuring Amedeo Pace, Ólöf Arnalds, David Thor Jonsson, Anthony Burr, Eyvind Kang, and Hildur Guðnadóttir in 2005. He released ''Seria'' in 2006 and ''Seria ll'' in 2010. Skúli has won five Icelandic Music Awards, including Icelandic Album of the Year for ''Seria'' in 2006. He has appeared on over one hundred recordings and has performed with

, Hilmar Jensson,

Jim Black Jim Black is an American jazz drummer who has performed with Tim Berne and Dave Douglas. He attended Berklee College of Music. Career His band AlasNoAxis includes Hilmar Jensson on electric guitar, Chris Speed on tenor saxophone and clarine ...

Chris Speed Chris Speed (born February 12, 1967) is an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. Early life and career Speed grew up outside of Seattle and studied classical piano and clarinet from an early age. He later began studying jazz, took up ...

, Anthony Burr, Laurie Anderson, Allan Holdsworth,

, David Sylvian,

Yungchen Lhamo Yungchen Lhamo (Tibetan: དབྱངས་ཅན་ལྷ་མོ, ''lhamo'' meaning "goddess of song") is a Tibetan singer-songwriter living in the United States. She won the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album in 1995 and was then signed ...

Jamshied Sharifi Jamshied Sharifi (born October 17, 1960) is an American composer and musician. He was born in Topeka, Kansas to an Iranian father and an American mother. At an early age, Sharifi was exposed to Jazz and Middle Eastern music by his father and t ...

, Pachora, and Alas No Axis. He was a part of

Mo Boma ''Mo Boma'' was an ambient music ensemble from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1989 by Skúli Sverrisson and Carsten Tiedemann. Their name comes from a pygmy lullaby for girls. In 1990, Jamshied Sharifi joined the group as well. Their second ...

with Jamshied Sharifi and Carsten Tiedemann, releasing four albums on Extreme; "Jijimuge", "Myths of the Near Future - Part One", "Myths of the Near Future - Part Two" and "Myths of the Near Future - Part Three".

Discography

* 1991 – ''Secret Stories'', Full Circle (

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

) * 1992 – ''Poetry of Joseph Kopf'', Peter Herbert (Extraplatte) * 1992 – ''

Jijimuge ''Jijimuge'' is the debut album of Mo Boma, released in 1992 through Extreme Records. Track listing Personnel ;Mo Boma *Jamshied Sharifi – synthesizer *Skúli Sverrisson – extended-range bass, fretless bass *Carsten Tiedemann&n ...

'', Mo Boma (Extreme) * 1993 – ''

Hard Hat Area ''Hard Hat Area'' is the eighth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1993 through Polydor Records (Japan), JMS–Cream Records (Europe) and Fred Bloggs Music (United Kingdom), and in 1994 through Restless Records (United States ...

'',

(Restless) * 1994 – ''

Myths of the Near Future Part One ''Myths of the Near Future Part One'' is the second album by Mo Boma, released in 1994 through Extreme Records. Track listing Personnel ;Mo Boma *Jamshied Sharifi – synthesizer, percussion, engineering *Skúli Sverrisson – b ...

'', Mo Boma (Extreme) * 1995 – '' Myths of the Near Future Part Two'', Mo Boma (Extreme) * 1995 – ''Dofinn'', Hilmar Jensson (Is Jazz) * 1995 – ''Blonde Redhead'', Blonde Redhead (Smells Like) * 1996 – ''Myths of the Near Future Part Three'', Mo Boma (Extreme) * 1996 – ''Esprit'',

Kazumi Watanabe is a Japanese guitarist. Other guitarists such as Luke Takamura and Sugizo have cited him as an influence. Career Watanabe learned guitar at the age of 12 from Sadanori Nakamure at the Yamaha Music School in Tokyo. He released his first album ...

, (

Polygram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

) * 1997 – ''Seremonie'', Skúli Sverrisson (Extreme) * 1997 – ''Prayer for the Soul of Layla'', Jamshied Sharifi (Alula) * 1997 – ''No Boat'', Ben Monder (Songlines) * 1997 – ''Extreme 10'', Skúli Sverrisson (Extreme) * 1998 – ''Kjár'', Skúli Sverrisson & Hilmar Jensson (Bad Taste) * 1998 – ''Bushes and Briars'', Susan McKeown (Alula) * 1998 – ''Pachora'', Pachora (

Knitting Factory The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...

) * 1998 – ''Unn'', Pachora (Knitting Factory) * 1998 – ''Dabilen Harria'', Ruper Ordorika (Nuevos Medios) * 1999 – ''Desist'', Skúli Sverrisson & Anthony Burr (Staalplaat) * 1999 – ''Yeah No'', Chris Speed (Songlines) * 1999 – ''Deviantics'', Chris Speed (Songlines) * 1999 – ''Ast'', Pachora (Knitting Factory) * 2000 – ''

AlasNoAxis ''AlasNoAxis'' is the debut album by drummer Jim Black's AlasNoAxis featuring clarinetist/saxophonist Chris Speed, guitarist Hilmar Jensson and bassist Skúli Sverrisson recorded in 2000 and released on the Winter & Winter label. Reception ...

'',

's AlasNoAxis (

Winter & Winter Winter & Winter is a record label in Munich, Germany that specializes in jazz, classical and improvised music. It was founded by Stefan Winter following the demise of his JMT Records label. Since 1997 Winter & Winter has released records by Da ...

) * 2000 – ''Origami'', Theo Bleckmann (Songlines) * 2000 – ''The Well'', Brad Shepik (Songlines) * 2000 – ''Marinade'', Mark Dresser (

Tzadik Tzadik ( he, צַדִּיק , "righteous ne, also ''zadik'', ''ṣaddîq'' or ''sadiq''; pl. ''tzadikim'' ''ṣadiqim'') is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The ...

) * 2000 – ''In His Own Sweet Way'', Pachora (

Avant AVANT, also known as AVANT street art guerrilla collective, was the artist group active in New York City from 1980 to 1984. By 1984 AVANT had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops and gallerie ...

) * 2000 – '' Excavation'', Ben Monder (

Arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...

) * 2000 – ''Emit'', Chris Speed (Songlines) * 2001 – ''Life on a String'',

(

Nonesuch __NOTOC__ Nonesuch may refer to: Plants * ''Lychnis chalcedonica'', a wildflower * ''Medicago lupulina'', a wildflower Places and structures *Nonesuch, Kentucky *Nonesuch Island, Bermuda *Nonesuch Mine, Michigan *Nonesuch Palace, mis-spelling of ...

) * 2001 – '' Splay'', Jim Black's AlasNoAxis (Winter & Winter) * 2001 – ''Klif'', Jóel Pálsson (Omi) * 2001 – ''Live at Town Hall'', Laurie Anderson (Nonesuch) * 2001 – ''Napoli 23'', Napoli 23 (Bad Taste) * 2001 – ''After Silence'', Skúli Sverrisson & Óskar Guðjónsson (Omi) * 2002 – ''Asterotypical'', Pachora (Winter & Winter) * 2002 – ''Iceman Is'', Terje Isungset ( Jazzland/Universal) * 2003 – ''World Citizen'',

(Samadhisound) * 2003 – ''Quartet Lucy'', John Hollenbeck (CRI) * 2003 – ''Voice in the Wilderness'', Pachora (Tzadik) * 2004 – ''Swell Henry'', Chris Speed (Squealer) * 2004 – '' Habyor'', Jim Black's AlasNoAxis (Winter & Winter) * 2004 – ''One'', Jamshied Sharifi (Alula) * 2004 – ''Misery is a Butterfly'', Blonde Redhead (4AD) * 2005 – ''Virðulegir Forsetar'', Jóhann Jóhannsson (Touch) * 2005 – ''Oceana'', Ben Monder (Arabesque) * 2005 – ''Marmorere'', Peter Scherer (Peter Scherer) * 2005 – ''A 1000 Incidents Arise'', Skúli Sverrisson & Anthony Burr (Worker's Institute) * 2005 – '' Dogs of Great Indifference'', Jim Black's AlasNoAxis (Winter & Winter) * 2005 – ''Ama'', Yungchen Lhamo (Real World) * 2006 – ''Bricolage'', Ruyichi Sakamoto (KAB) * 2006 – ''Seria'', Skúli Sverrisson (12 Tonar) * 2006 – ''Family Album'', Kitchen Motors (Bad Taste) * 2007 – ''23'', Blonde Redhead (4AD) * 2007 – ''Illusionista'', Bass Instinct (Erschienen) * 2007 – ''Við og Við'', Ólof Arnalds (12 tonar) * 2007 – ''Jostojoo'', Mamak Khadem (Mamak Khadem) * 2007 – ''Cycles'', Einar Scheving (Valdis) * 2008 – ''Aero'', Ghostdigital (Bad Taste) * 2009 – ''Without Sinking'', Hildur Guðnadottir (Touch) * 2009 – ''Iridescence'', Hildur Guðnadottir (Touch) * 2009 – ''

Houseplant A houseplant, sometimes known as a pot plant, potted plant, or an indoor plant, is an ornamental plant that is grown indoors. As such, they are found in places like residences and offices, mainly for decorative purposes. Common houseplants are us ...

'', Jim Black's AlasNoAxis (Winter & Winter) * 2009 – ''Haizea Garizumakoa', Ruper Ordorika (Elkar) * 2009 – ''

Spiritual Dimensions ''Spiritual Dimensions'' is a double album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith released on Cuneiform. The first disc is the fourth release by his Golden Ensemble, which began as a quartet but here expands into a quintet with two drummers, ...

'', Wadada Leo Smith (

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

) * 2009 – ''Out of Noise'', Ruyichi Sakamoto (KAB) * 2010 – ''Butterfly'', Base Instinct Zappel (Music) * 2010 – ''Homeland'', Laurie Anderson (Nonesuch) * 2010 – ''Innundir Skinni'', Ólof Arnalds (One Little Indian) * 2010 – ''Seria ll'', Skúli Sverrisson (Seria) * 2011 – ''Hodeien azpian'', Ruper Ordorika (Elkar) * 2011 – ''

Heart's Reflections ''Heart's Reflections'' is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The album was released on May 16, 2011 via Cuneiform Records label. Reception Glen Hall of ''Exclaim!'' stated "Trumpeter Smith wears his love for ...

'', Wadada Leo Smith (Cuneiform) * 2012 – ''White Mountain'', Úlfur (Western Vinyl) * 2012 – ''The Box Tree'', Skúli Sverrisson & Óskar Guðjónsson (Mengi) * 2013 – ''Antiheroes'', Jim Black's AlasNoAxis (Winter & Winter) * 2014 – ''They Hold It for Certain...'', Skúli Sverrisson, Yungchen Lhamo & Anthony Burr (Mengi Records) * 2015 – ''Intervals'', Einar Scheving (Valrún) * 2016 – ''Saumur'', Arve Henriksen, Skúli Sverrisson & Hilmar Jensson (Mengi Records) * 2018 – ''Strata'', Skúli Sverrisson, Bill Frisell (Newvelle Records)

References

External links

*
1992 Video of Skúli Sverrisson playing with Allan Holdsworth and Chad Wackerman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sverrisson, Skuli 1966 births Living people Skuli Sverrisson Berklee College of Music alumni Avant-garde jazz musicians