Mugison

Mugison is the working name of Örn Elías Guðmundsson, an Icelandic songwriter who came out of Reykjavík's electronic underground and turned, record by record, into something closer to a blues singer with a guitar and a bad temper.

He was born in Reykjavík on 4 September 1976 and spent part of his childhood in Ísafjörður in the Westfjords and in Cape Verde, where his father worked on a government fishing programme. The name came later, in Malaysia: his father was known as Muggi, the locals could not manage the name, and the son of Muggi became Mugison.

From a laptop to a guitar

After studying recording arts in London he began producing his own material. His debut Lonely Mountain arrived in 2003 through Matthew Herbert's Accidental Records, and early shows were solo sets driven by a laptop. The performances grew louder and more guitar-heavy over time, until critics were describing him as an electric-guitar-wielding blues crooner — a folk troubadour with a dirty, distorted sound that owes as much to Tom Waits and Nick Cave as to the blues.

Records that moved a small country

Mugiboogie sold more than ten thousand copies in 2007 without mainstream radio support. Haglél, released in Icelandic in 2011, passed thirty thousand — a remarkable figure in a country of that size. He has also scored films, among them Niceland (2004), A Little Trip to Heaven (2005) and Mýrin (2007).

Aldrei fór ég suður

In 2004 he founded the free festival Aldrei fór ég suður — "I Never Went South" — in Ísafjörður with his father. It has become one of the fixtures of Icelandic musical life and says as much about him as any of his records.

Founder of the Aldrei fór ég suður festival, Ísafjörður (2004); film scores for Niceland, A Little Trip to Heaven and Mýrin