The Bjorn Thoroddsen Trio & Egill Ólafsson
The Bjorn Thoroddsen Trio was formed in 1993 and has enjoyed considerable popularity in Iceland since then. Although all its members remain very active in other musical spheres, the trio appears regularily at jazz clubs . They have recently worked out a program, called "Halla´s Travels" in cooperation with Reykjavík Cultural City 2000, that is based on one Icelandic folk song, in this program they go on a world trip with that little tune and play it in various styles compered to time and space. Last year the band toured Germany, USA, Kanada and Greenland and this year they have plans for visiting the Cultural Citys Of Europe 2000, wich are nine different citys in Europe. "Híf opp" is the band´s first CD release. The music is a fusion of jazz, rock and latin and incorporates elements of traditional Icelandic music. The personnel consists of Björn Thoroddsen, guitar, Egill Ólafsson, vocal and Gunnar Hrafnsson, double bass and Ásgeir Óskarsson, percussion.

Gunnar Hrafnsson, Ásgeir Óskarsson, Björn and Egill Ólafsson

Halla´s Travels: This is a musical theatre in a suitcase so to speak, based on an old folk song and performed by some of Iceland´s most prestigious musicians in jazz and popular music. By colliding different musical genres and implying other melodies to their folk song, Halla´s Travels is about to show yet again that music is the universal language of the world. Halla´s Travels will go from one country to another and play in Reykjavík on various occasions, for example on the opening of the Cultural Year.

Singer-songwriter Egill Ólafsson, through 25 years a front figure within the multi-stylistic pop-rock group Stuðmenn ("The Good-Timers") and the shorter lived but influential quasi-ethnic rock ensemble, "The Icelandic Ogre Band" (Þursaflokkurinn), has also been much in demand as an actor in films, TV and on the stage, for which media he has written a sizable quantity of music, as well as numerous popular rock songs.
Gunnar Hrafnsson - Bass has been very active on the Icelandic music-scene for 20 years as an electric and acoustic bassplayer, playing and recording mostly jazz and popular music.He has performed and recorded with the Reykjavik City Big Band, the Icelandic Radio orchestra and the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and participated in numerous theater musicals at the National Theater. Gunnar has played whith numerous foreign musicians such as: Etta Cameron, Finn Ziegler, Frank Foster, Ole Koch Hansen, Olivier Antunes, Greg Hopkins.
Ásgeir Óskarsson - Percussion. A leading drummer on the Icelandic music scene for 30 years, Óskarsson has appeared on between 150-200 record appearances, and just recently he released hi first solo album.