Skúli Sverrisson has built a unique international career as a composer, instrumentalist, and creative collaborator with a very broad spectrum of international artists. Skúli was active in the downtown music scene of New York, where he collaborated with Ben Monder, Pachora, among others. During this period, he recorded and toured worldwide with the legendary guitarist Alan Holdsworth and was a member of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s band. Skúli worked closely with artist Laurie Anderson for over a decade as a creative collaborator, performer, and producer. He was the music director of Life on a String, which won Anderson a Grammy for the best-sounding record of the year. Skúli has played with free jazz legends such as Wadada Leo Smith and Derek Bailey, performed with revolutionaries like Lou Reed, Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, and Arto Lindsay, and collaborated with new music composers and performers such as Anthony Burr, Sidsel Endresen, and Bára Gísladóttir.

Skúli has been a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra three times, one of which was a recording for Deutsche Grammophon of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Sicario Suite. He also wrote a piece for the orchestra and Ólöf Arnalds’ voice, Kaldur sólargeisli (A Cold Ray of Sun). Skúli has worked with Víkingur Ólafsson as an instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. He recorded the celebrated album Strata with Bill Frisell, featuring Skúli’s compositions.

Skúli is recognized for his bass playing on the records of Blonde Redhead and his duo album Strata with Bill Frisell, which features his compositions. He is also known for his work as the producer of Ólöf Arnalds’ solo albums and for his collaborative work with trumpet player Arve Henriksen and the vocal group Trio Mediæval. He recently completed a duo album with Kjartan Sveinsson (Sigur Rós), awaiting release. Skúli has also recently started working with Jakob Bro on new material for live performance and recording, alongside saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson, with whom he has released two critically acclaimed albums, After Silence and The Box Tree.

In the world of film, Skúli has been involved in creating some of the highly acclaimed scores by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jóhann Jóhannsson. Skúli frequently collaborated with Jóhann, for example, on his composition Virðulegir forsetar and his scores for Sicario and Mandy. He also co-composed the track Glacier, featured in Sakamoto's score for The Revenant. Skúli has had a very close working relationship with composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. He performed on her solo album Without Sinking and performed and arranged all the guitar parts for her score to Women Talking, which was nominated for the Golden Globe Awards.

Skúli has written new music for the National Theater of Iceland and won the Icelandic Theatre Awards, Gríman, for Music of the Year. He has also been involved as a composer with the Icelandic Dance Company and Theater Freiburg, where he worked with dancer and choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir. He produced the music for the exhibition of artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (Shoplifter) along with the Icelandic cult band HAM for the Venice Biennale, which has now become a permanent installation at Höfuðstöðin in Reykjavík.

In his successful career, Skúli has performed on over 200 records and played concerts all over the world. He has won the Icelandic Music Awards seven times for his compositions and performances and has been nominated twice for the Nordic Council Music Prize. He has also been mentioned in the prestigious yearly critic’s poll of DownBeat over ten times. Skúli founded Mengi (a creative music venue in Reykjavík) in 2013 and has been the creative director of the institution from the beginning.