Íslensk tangótónlist | Icelandic Tango Music
In 2021 Ásta Soffía was granted the Cultural Fund of the Icelandic Central Bank (ísl. Menningarsjóður tengdur nafni Jóhannesar Nordals). With that fund she was able to research and collect the Icelandic tango music from 1920-1970.
She performs a program consisting of Icelandic tango music regularly together with the singer Þorgerður Ása Aðalsteinsdóttir. They call their duo Ása&Ásta. They have, among other places, performed at Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík.
Ása&Ásta
Ásta Soffía is currently working on publishing sheet music with her arrangements of Icelandic tango music from 1920-1970.
Solo Work
Ásta Soffía performs regularly solo with a diverse repertoire. She specialises in Baroque and contemporary music but additionally plays traditional music and accordion entertainment music.
The release of her first solo album will find place 29th of October 2026. More info
Ásta Soffía is currently working with five composers on new music for solo accordion. The composers and description of their work is as follows:
- Eftirlíf by Haukur Tómasson was premiered the 10th of July 2025 as part of Ásta’s solo concert in Akureyri Church.
Haukur says:
The composition starts intensely slow, a long chord slides slowly to the sound surface. It can be said that the chord is then taken apart and scattered throughout the register range. Eftirlíf is a kind of living echo of the opening chord, either otherworldly splinters or something more earthly. - (H)ljóðmyndir við Tímann og vatnið by Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir was premiered the 13th of July 2025 as part of Ásta’s solo concert in Hallgrímskirkja, Saurbæ.
Ásbjörg says:
The experience of Steinn Steinarr’s poem and the emotional response to it were transferred to music through improvisation, shared experience, interpretation and deep mutual sensibility of performer and composer. The electronics include fragments of the poet‘s recitation and acoustic atmosphere. The result is an ambient soundscape where time, memory and inner experience appear in the close collaboration of the accordion and electronics. - Un tremore delle vene by Karoline Skriver was premiered the 11th of October 2025 at The Garden Studio, Djursland Denmark.
Karoline says:
It is carried by a persistent intensity and an insistence on presence – conditions that Asta Soffia masters when she plays. The composition moves in the field between light and darkness, soul and body, birth and death, and examines whether these can exist simultaneously – in one common ground. - The composer Guðmundur Steinn is in the process of composing Beggja skauta for Ásta Soffía. The composition will be premiered in 2027.
- The composer Eygló Höskuldsdóttir Viborg is in the process of composing Perluglit for Ásta Soffía. The composition will be premiered in 2027.
Nordiske Noter
Nordiske Noter is a collaboration between Ásta Soffía and the Danish composer Karoline Skriver. Their main source of inspiration in their creative work is spoken Nordic poetry.
In 2026 they will dive into interdisciplinary creative work with four Nordic poets:
- Inger Elisabeth Hansen from Norway
- Þórarinn Eldjárn from Iceland
- Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen from Faroe Islands
- Liv Ea from Danmark
Here you can read more about the project.
Fía&Falcón
Fía&Falcón is an Icelandic-Norwegian duo comprising the accordionists Ásta Soffía and Daniel Falcón Græsdal.
Their repertoire reflects the cultural bonds between Iceland and Norway through the accordion, consisting of Nordic traditional music and musical gems from the accordion entertainment era (the Golden Age of the Accordion).
Barónikka
Barónikka is a duo consisting of Gunnlaugur Bjarnason baritone singer and Ásta Soffía Þorgeirsdóttir accordionist. They play Icelandic folk songs, hymns and Lieder (ísl. einsöngslag) in their own arrangements.
