How the Family Behind Icelandic Fragrance Brand Fischersund Is Taking an All-encompassing Approach to Expansion

Inga, Sigurrós and Lilja Birgisdottir and Jónsi Birgisson may be siblings and artists but that is where the commonalities end.

The four siblings have each pursued different métiers — Inga is an artist and creative director; Jónsi is a musician; Sigurrós is a packaging designer and head artisan, and Lilja is a fine artist — and each brings a different discipline to Fischersund, the art collective-perfume-brand hybrid they founded together in 2017.

“We are all artists, and every time we met up as a family over a glass of wine, we’d say it would be so fun to work together instead of being in our separate corners,” says Lilja Birgisdottir. “We’re musicians, perfumers, photographers and artists, and it was always a dream to put all of our experiences together and create something amazing.”

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The result is Fischersund, an array of perfumes in varied formats, with names like No. 23, Útilykt, Flotholt and No. 101, each encased in printed bandanas.

“Sometimes we start with the scent and then develop the visual world around it,” says Inga Birgisdottir. “Sometimes, it starts with an art piece, a photographer, photograph or video. And then the scent is developed around that. We’re always in this conversation, and it always happens naturally.”

The scents themselves are created by Birgisson, frontman of Icelandic band Sigur Rós, who actually started creating fragrances nearly two decades ago.

“It’s all working in ideas,” Birgisson says of both music and perfumery. “It’s all invisible. Music, in a sense, is just in the air too, and it makes you feel something. They’re very similar.”

Since he’s based in Los Angeles while the rest of the family still lives in Reykjavik, much of the fragrance creation requires lots of transatlantic samples. “We have recipes we send to each other. Jónsi makes the recipes, sends it to me, I remake it in Iceland and we smell it and give feedback,” says Sigurrós Birgisdottir.

“The DNA of Fischersund is made up of the art collective, niche perfumery and a music collective. The brand pushes the boundaries of perfumery within those walls and turns the notion of creation on its head,” says Vanessa Dabich, the industry veteran who now serves as Fischersund’s global general manager. “It uses art to filter meaningful connections with our customers, who are fanatical about the brand once they enter.”

Fischersund relies on an immersive approach to marketing and retailing the fragrances, with a focus on each sibling’s creative talents. Case in point: the family put on what they have dubbed “scent concerts,” where various juices are diffused for a live audience while the founders perform.

“Music is such a big part of this project, that it made total sense to put it on a pedestal,” says Inga Birgisdottir. “We use industrial diffusers, we use incense, we’ve even had a moving sculpture moving through the audience. We try different things to diffuse different scents.”

Each of the scent concerts have between 200 and 500 people in the audience, and have taken place in Iceland, Ireland, New York and Los Angeles.

“We always give out samples, we ask everyone to close their eyes and we tell people the story of the fragrances,” adds Lilja Birgisdottir. “We take them on the scent journey, and they get to take that scent home with them.”

Next up on the docket is Fischersund: Faux Flora, an exhibition that opened in Seattle at the National Nordic Museum on Nov. 8 that will run into January before traveling internationally.

“Our collaboration with Jónsi resulted in an important new work of art, and it has continued to flourish through this recent project with the Fischersund Art Collective’s Faux Flora,” says Leslie Anne Anderson, chief curator of the National Nordic Museum. “Through such forward-thinking and engaging exhibitions, the National Nordic Museum catalyzes and supports the creation of art that resonates with all visitors.”

Inspired by Iceland-native plant species, the exhibition includes its own scenting, and draws parallels between the life cycles of both plants and humans. The brand is offering a sample set of each of the five fragrances made to complement the exhibit, which will retail for $140 at the museum. “The spark was there when we were surrounded by the raw materials we use in our perfumes,” Inga Birgisdottir says. 

“Some of them are totally natural and you know where they come from, and some are synthetic and come from a lab. We are making big three-dimensional video pieces for each flower, and the exhibition itself is categorized in five stages,” Birgisdottir continues.