Andres Thor

Icelandic Jazz Guitarist and Composer

Andres Thor began his musical studies at age 12 in his hometown Hafnarfjordur, a little harbour town nearby Reykjavík, Iceland. At first his influences where glitter rock and Hippie rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Bon Jovi. In his teens Andres first heard the music of John Coltrane and Pat Metheny wich led him to slowly getting more and more fascinated with jazz music. Soon Andres started studying with some of Icelands finest jazz educators at the FIH music school. After graduating his musical quest brought him to study at the Koninklijk Conservatorium (The Royal Conservatory) in The Hague, The Netherlands from the year 2000. Andres finished his BM in spring 2004 and his Masters degree in the spring of 2006. In Holland Andres studied under the guidance of Wim Bronnenberg, Peter Nieuwerf, Eef Albers, John Ruocco and Hein v/d Geyn as main teachers but also attended workshops and masterclasses lead by musicians such as Michael Brecker, Kurt Rosenwinkel, John Abercrombie and Avishai Cohen as well as performing with the great Michael Brecker and the Royal Conservatory big band at a concert held in City Hall in The Hague. Living and studying in the Netherlands lead to the first cd featuring Andres as a co-leader; “It was a very good year” (WW&T 2004) by the organ trio “Wijnen, Winter & Thor” and featured songs by Andres and organ player Bob Wijnen and one collectively composed piece by the trio. Since then Andres has been based and working in and out of Iceland and has released three Cd’s under his own name; New Day (Dimma 2006), a quartet outing featuring original compositions by Andres. Blik (Dimma 2009), a trio recording featuring fresh arrangements of standards and two originals. Monokrom (Dimma 2012), a quartet featuring new compositions by Andres that set a new tone in the guitarists repertoire. Andres has also worked in collective projects and as a sideman with bands like ASA trio, The Viking Giant Show, BonSom and Andreas Dreier quartet to name a few. As well as perfoming regularly all across his home country of Iceland Andres has performed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Luxemburg, Spain and USA. Andres has been working as a music teacher at the FÍH music school and performing as a session musician in studios, at concerts and in theater productions.