Andrés Þór Gunnlaugsson

Andrés Þór Gunnlaugsson, born on 27 December 1974, is an Icelandic jazz guitarist, composer, arranger and teacher who is generally credited internationally as Andrés Thor. From Hafnarfjörður, he has worked both as a bandleader and as a supporting instrumentalist within Iceland’s music scene. His career brings together guitar performance, original jazz composition, studio work, theatre productions and music education. He began working professionally as an instrumentalist in 1994, playing dance engagements, and has since appeared in concerts, recording studios and stage productions while maintaining his own ensembles.

His formal training included a leaving examination from the FÍH Music School in 1999. He then studied in the Netherlands, receiving a BA in jazz guitar and pedagogy from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in 2004, followed by an MA from the same institution in 2006. He later undertook a diploma programme in pedagogy at the Iceland University of the Arts. His Dutch period also led to an early cross-border recording project: the first jazz album on which he recorded was by the Dutch-Icelandic trio Wijnen, Winter & Thor. Released in 2004, It Was a Very Good Year included his composition Þórdísardans.

After returning to Iceland, Gunnlaugsson developed projects under his own name and released his first leader album, Nýr dagur, in 2006. The record consists of his original music and features him on guitar with Sigurður Flosason on alto saxophone, Valdimar K. Sigurjónsson on double bass and Scott McLemore on drums. It established a pattern of regular recorded work as a leader. In 2014, he issued a tune book containing 45 compositions that had appeared on his own albums or collaborative releases, documenting the central place of composition alongside his work as a performer.

Mónókróm, released in 2012, extended the instrumental range of his quartet music. In addition to guitar, Gunnlaugsson played dobro, lap steel and pedal steel; Agnar Már Magnússon contributed piano and other keyboards, Þorgrímur Jónsson played bass, and Scott McLemore played drums and percussion. The title composition received an Icelandic Music Award nomination in the jazz and blues work-of-the-year category, while the album was nominated for jazz and blues album of the year and Gunnlaugsson was nominated as a composer. Nordic Quartet followed in 2014. Recorded in Oslo, it paired his guitar and pedal steel with Anders Lønne Grønseth on saxophones and bass clarinet, Andreas Dreier on double bass, and Erik Nylander on drums and drum machine, creating another Nordic collaborative setting for his compositions.

Subsequent releases continued his emphasis on original material and changing ensemble formats. Ypsilon, recorded in Reykjavík and released in 2016, featured Agnar Már Magnússon, bassist Richard Andersson and drummer Ari Hoenig. For Paradox, released in 2019 and recorded in Brooklyn, he again worked with Magnússon and Hoenig, with Orlando Le Fleming on bass. Gunnlaugsson is credited on that recording as both guitarist and composer. These projects placed Icelandic colleagues alongside musicians from Denmark, Norway, Britain and the United States, while retaining his writing as their musical focus.

Hereby, issued by Norway’s Losen Records in 2022, is a guitar-trio album with Nico Moreaux on double bass and Magnús Trygvason Elíassen on drums. All of its compositions are by Gunnlaugsson, who also mixed and produced the recording. The same trio became the basis for Relocate, released by Losen on 14 August 2026. In a radio interview connected with that release, Gunnlaugsson was identified as the composer of all the music and as playing electric guitar, nylon-string acoustic guitar and pedal steel; Moreaux and Magnús Trygvason Elíassen again provided bass and drums. Together, these releases show a sustained commitment to the guitar trio as well as to a broader palette of guitar-family instruments.

His recognition reflects his position as a performer, composer and participant in the musical life of Hafnarfjörður and Reykjavík. He was named Hafnarfjörður’s Town Artist in 2014 and received the Icelandic Music Award for Jazz Performer of the Year in 2024. In 2025, the orchestra for Reykjavík City Theatre’s production of Moulin Rouge! received the FÍH Performers’ Award at Icelandic Music Day; Gunnlaugsson was among its instrumentalists, performing guitar and keyboards. He has taught at Menntaskóli í tónlist since the school’s founding, became head of its rhythmic department in January 2023, and has also taught at the Iceland University of the Arts. These parallel roles as performer, composer and educator form a substantial part of his contribution to Icelandic jazz.