Pétur Ben, Ragga Gröndal & Guðmundur Pétursson

Pétur Ben, Ragga Gröndal and Guðmundur Pétursson are all well-established musicians in their home country, Iceland. They have contributed their talents across genres and musical boundaries, on their own as solo artists, as well as in collaboration with others. Their concert at the Jazz Dock will consist of both their original music and surprising covers of songs they love.

Pétur Ben is an award-winning Icelandic composer, lyricist, singer, producer, arranger, and guitarist. He has collaborated with Shahzad Ismaily, Nick Cave, Mugison, Sóley, Amiina, Lay Low, and Emilíana Torrini. His 2006 album, Wine For My Weakness, won the Icelandic Music Award for Best Rock Album. He has a wide range of music ranging from soft minimalistic folk songs to Black Metal. He has composed music for chamber ensembles and choirs as well as film and television music. He is the recipient of an Edda Award, which he won in the Best Film Music category for Metalhead (2013) and the TV show Prisoners (2017). He also wrote the music for eight episodes of the television series The Valhalla Murders and for the film Solitude (2023).

Ragga Gröndal is often described as one of Iceland’s most remarkable singers. For ten years she has been collaborating with a group of musicians with whom she has performed all over Europe. The band consists of a group of independent musicians Guðmundur Pétursson (guitar), Haukur Gröndal (wind instruments), and Claudio Spieler (percussion). Although their music is strongly rooted in the Icelandic folk tradition, they challenge convention by incorporating diverse, sometimes very distant influences. They are also inspired by modern Icelandic reality and its relationship to the old days – rejecting conformity while remaining true to authenticity. Ragga considers the protection of Icelandic, the mother tongue of only 330,000 people in the world, to be a very important theme, which is why she sings mostly in Icelandic. In 2006, she was named Iceland’s best-selling artist and was named Icelandic Singer of the Year. In 2007, she was a finalist in the Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins competition, a competition to find a representative for Eurovision in Belgrade in 2008.

Guðmundur Pétursson was a teenager when he broke through as a guitarist, and it didn't take long for him to rise to the forefront of Icelandic musicians. He can play all kinds of guitars equally well in most genres of music, and in recent years he has even started singing his own songs. Guðmundur is, of course, well known for his blues guitar playing, but he has also written pieces for symphony orchestra and released solo albums of various kinds, as well as being probably the most sought-after guitarist of all time in Iceland.

Admission seating CZK 450, standing CZK 250. There is no need to reserve a seat when purchasing a seating ticket.

Band website: www.peturben.com