riceboy sleeps update
as mentioned before, the new riceboy sleeps album from jónsi and alex will be released shortly - if you go to their site now you can get an mp3 from the forthcoming album, sign up for their mailing list aswell as seeing a video that explores some of the stories behind the recording and evolution of the album. there is also information about being able to pre-order the deluxe edition from the 6th of july.
icelandic folk music festival 2009
on the 4th of july, sigur rós will take part in the icelandic folk music festival in the icelandic town of siglufjörður. the event will be in honour of the icelandic chanter steindór andersen.
steindór andersen, páll guðmundsson, various icelandic kvæðamenn (rímur chanters) and sigur rós will perform odins ravens magic.
aol spinner interface session
on september the 18th 2008 in new york city, the band recorded a four song live session for aol spinner interface. the four songs, all from “með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust”, are: við spilum endalaust, fljótavík, inní mér syngur vitleysingur and illgresi. there is also an interview.
the four songs and interview are also available on the spinner interface podcast (itunes link)
best icelandic album
as ágætis byrjun celebrates its 10th anniversary it has just been voted the best icelandic album of all time in a survey by the icelandic national radio and tonlist.is. the list of the 100 best icelandic albums was based on the opinion of 100 experts the press and music industry as well as a public vote. in addition to ágætis byrjun, með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust was in 9th place and takk… was in 20th place.
a similar survey on the best icelandic albums was conducted in 2001 with the same conclusion: ágætis byrjun is the best icelandic album of all time.
depeche mode competition
as we mentioned last month, jónsi has remixed the song “come back” for the latest depeche mode single “peace”. its only available on the 7″ vinyl version - and to celebrate the release we’re running a competition - we have five copies of the vinyl to give away.
this competition is now over, thanks to everyone who entered. the five winners have been selected randomly and notified.
sigur rós win quiz show
sigur rós competed in the icelandic music quiz show popppunktur last night. on popppunktur two bands compete against one another answering questions about pop music. sigur rós minus jónsi (overseas at the time) went up against the 80s pop group áhöfnin á halastjörnunni and won 31-15, correctly answering questions about manic street preachers, dolly parton, eurovision, rolling stones, frank sinatra and simply red, to name a few. fun segments included kjartan making a surprisingly impressive long jump towards an easy question, and sigur rós having to perform an impromptu version of an old song by folk pop singer bubbi morthens.
sigur rós will compete on popppunktur again later in the summer when the semi-finals start. other bands competing this season include múm, fm belfast and sprengjuhöllin.
you can watch the show here (windows media stream)
ágætis byrjun 10th anniversary
ten years ago today ágætis byrjun was released in iceland. to celebrate the album and its impact we have put together a new ágætis byrjun section that aims to chronicle the album, its recording, its impact and its legacy.
we did some poking around and dug up articles from icelandic newspapers from 1997-1999, talked to people who were there when the album was being recorded and found a previousily unheard three track promo from 1999. in the section we also highlight some extended versions of the songs, show some interesting background videos from 1998, 1999 and 2000, have lots of pictures from that era, the svefn-g-englar video (and the “making of” video), the viðrar vel til loftárása video and some behind the scenes pictures, press reviews, album ordering information, a little teaser about a deluxe edition and of course, a competition. keep an eye on this section as there is more material to come over the coming days/weeks.
also, if you sign up for this mailing list, you’ll recieve a free mp3 from the launch concert of ágætis byrjun (from june 1999) aswell as a video from the same concert. well worth it.
sigur rós play for dalai lama
sigur rós will be playing a short set for the dalai lama at his public talk in laugardalshöllin arena in reykjavík, tuesday june 2nd. sigur rós will be joined by odin’s raven magic collaborators steindór andersen, hilmar örn hilmarsson, maría huld markan and páll from húsafell. the set will be comprised of parts from odin’s raven magic as well as ‘rímur’ chanting by steindór. the band will be performing without jónsi as he is currently in london working on his solo album. in an interview in today’s morgunblaðið newspaper, steindór says the group was honoured to have been asked to perform for the dalai lama and view their contribution more as a tribute to the spiritual leader than as a concert for the guests. the dalai lama event is sold out.
new album near completion
sigur rós have certainly been keeping busy lately. in addition to the riceboy sleeps album, jónsi’s solo album and kjartan’s ondine soundtrack, sigur rós have been at work in their sundlaugin studio in álafoss the past few weeks recording a full length album, which is now nearing completion. orri told morgunblaðið newspaper today that the recordings have been going very well and that the album is taking form as a slower and more ambient record than með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust and takk…. he also describes the music as melodic but much less noisy and more “out there” than previous albums. the album does not have a release date set but is expected to be released sometime next year.
minningar um ágætis byrjun
kæru íslendingar! (já, við erum að tala við þig.) í tilefni 10 ára afmælis plötunnar ágætis byrjun nú í sumar langar okkur til að biðja þá sem voru viðstaddir útgáfutónleikana í íslensku óperunni, 12. júní 1999, að senda okkur minningar ykkar í kringum tónleikana, hvort sem það er mynd, texta, video, grein eða annað. allar minningar eða minningabútar í kringum plötuna og útgáfu hennar eru líka vel þegnar, skiptir engu hvort það eru tvær setningar eða tvö hundruð setningar. athugið að innsent efni gæti verið birt hér á vefnum á sérstöku svæði tileinkað ágætis byrjun. kærar þakkir!
[non-icelanders: the above is a note to ask those in attendance of the icelandic opera house concert of june 1999 to send in their memories from the concert and album release.]
jónsi recording solo album
we are happy to announce that jónsi is now working on his first solo album. the album will be largely acoustic and feature string arrangements from contemporary classical composer nico muhly. according to nico, jónsi’s solo music can be described as “ecstatic.” the as-yet-untitled project will be produced by peter katis, who has recently produced albums by the interpol, national and tokyo police club. we will bring you more official info about jónsi’s solo album when we have it.
interview on swedish tv
on swedish television earlier this week, there was a show filmed in iceland that talks about the current economic problems in iceland from a cultural perspective. the last third of the show focuses on sigur rós - including an interview with goggi. an interesting titbit from the interview is that “með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust” was originally to have english lyrics - but it just didnt work, it felt more natural to have the lyrics in icelandic. so the lyrics were either translated into icelandic or started anew.
the show is in icelandic, swedish and english - but people without icelandic and swedish should still be able to get a lot out of it. the sigur rós segment starts at 19:25. you can watch it here. (thanks to magnoos)
jónsi remixing depeche mode
on the forthcoming depeche mode single “peace“, jónsi provides a remix of the song “come back”. the remix is only available on the 7″ vinyl version. more information as we get it.
vinyl buy links: amazon.co.uk
also, for those that might have missed it a few years back - jónsi also provided a remix to the vinyl release of the “seoul” single by amiina. you can get that vinyl here amongst other places.
med sud deluxe films on pitchfork.tv
update: the videos are now offline, so if you want to watch the videos you’ll have to buy the deluxe edition here.
for one week only, pitchfork.tv is showing the two films that were part of the “með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust” deluxe edition.
the first is the 35minute “við spilum endalaust” (”we play endlessly”) and the second being a 13minute film of the recording session for “ára batur” at the abbey road studios.
split sides competition
time for another competition! two winners selected at random will each get a split sides dvd.
the question: in what year was “split sides” premiered?
this competition is now over and the correct answer was: 2003. the two winners have been notified. thanks to the 700+ people who entered!.
(many thanks to microcinema for supplying us with the prizes - note, the prize is in ntsc format only, but is region free)
riceboy sleeps album details
jónsi and alex have completed their first album together, entitled ‘riceboy sleeps’. the 68 minute album has 9 tracks and will be released july 20th on parlophone records. the instrumental album was recorded in iceland and played solely on acoustic instruments, with appearances by amiina and the kópavogsdætur choir. more info on the album can be read in the full press release.
tracklisting:
1. happiness
2. atlas song
3. indian summer
4. stokkseyri
5. boy 1904
6. all the big trees
7. daníell in the sea
8. howl
9. sleeping giant
split sides dvd
over five years after its premiere, the split sides dance performance has just been released. on sale in a two dvd set, it will show the 45th and 46th performances of split sides - with music provided by sigur rós and radiohead.
the dvd is available now on on microcinemadvd.com and from the 30th of june on amazon.com (amongst others).
note: it is just a ntsc format release at the moment. we suggest letting micro cinema know if you want it in PAL format, if enough people express interest then hopefully they will produce one.
more information about the music sigur rós provided for the piece is here.
band update
(edit: this part is all true) an update on what the band has been up to lately. recently we announced that jónsi and alex will release an album in the summer, and that kjartan is set to score the film ‘ondine’.
(edit: this following part was, of course, an april fools day joke)
we are now happy to announce that kjartan will also be writing and arranging strings for 4 songs on coldplay’s as-yet-untitled follow up album to 2008’s acclaimed ‘viva la vida’. kjartan has already completed most of the arrangements, which are set to be recorded in late spring. in addition to kjartan’s contribution, jónsi will join chris martin on vocals on one of the album’s songs. we were fortunate enough to be allowed to visit coldplay’s rehearsal space while jónsi and chris were rehearsing their collaboration, which promises to be nothing short of amazing. we filmed a short video from the session, which is now viewable on youtube here.
sigur rós in paris
la blogotheque filmed sigur rós performing “við spilum endalaust” in paris last november:
“icelanders are not terrorists”
yesterday orri and his wife lukka, in conjunction with the indefense advocacy group, delivered the uk parliament a petition of 83.000 icelanders in protest against british authorities invoking an anti-terrorism law against iceland. uk prime minister gordon brown ordered the law to be invoked last october in order to freeze icelandic assets in the uk, which many have called the death blow to the icelandic economy. in a special ceremony in westminster orri and lukka marched towards parliament, orri banging a drum, lukka wearing a traditional national costume. in an appearance on icelandic tv news orri said that with these protests the indefense group wishes to raise awareness among the uk public that an anti-terrorism law has wrongly been used against the icelandic people. here is a photo of orri and lukka and other representatives of indefense during the ceremony.
sigurrós on fanfarlo cover
when sigur rós’s friends fanfarlo were casting around for suitable inspiration for the cover of their debut album, ‘reservoir’, jónsi - hearing of the band’s love of czech photographer jan saudek - suggested they check out his sister lilja’s photography. upon investigating lilja’s myspace, the fanfarlo boys and girls decided to use an atmospheric shot lilja had taken of two young girls in nightgowns - one of them mysteriously masked - to grace the record’s front sleeve. only later did they realise that the masked girl was in fact none other than rósa (aka sigurrós, jónsi’s youngest sister), whose birth 15 years ago gave name to, well, you know who. as you can see here it’s a great album sleeve (for a great album if we may add).
náttúra documentary on itunes
following on from last summers náttúra concert in iceland, where björk, sigur rós and ólöf arnalds played a free outdoor concert to highlight the threats to the icelandic environment, a documentary is now available that explores some of the challenges.
unfortunately for the rest of the world, its only available in the united states store of itunes at the moment (itunes link) - but if it becomes more publically available we will let you know.
art page updated
we’ve done a (long-awaited) overhaul to the sigur rós art page which now contains all official and unofficial artwork in one place. on the page you’ll find all the official artwork made by sigur rós themselves (cover artwork and raw artwork) as well as sigur rós wallpapers and artwork sent in by fans. if you’d like your own sigur rós related artwork to appear on this page then send us an email and we’ll add it to the art page at some point (please be patient). thanks to all who’ve sent us their images so far!
also updated is the sigur rós graffiti page with photos of sigur rós graffiti spotted around the world.
tour posters gallery
following on from this post a few weeks back, we now have a nice collection of fantastic posters from concerts over the last few years. thanks to the people who sent us information and thanks to the artists for sending us the images. more are always welcome.
von vinyl competition
it’s early march. a nice time for a random quick competition.
over the next few weeks one little indian will release a heavyweight vinyl pressing of the bands first album, von. we have one copy to give away to a person who answers this question correctly: “what is the longest song on “von” ?.
(this competition is now closed, thanks to everyone who entered - the answer was ‘hafssól’)
update: we’ve been in contact with the winner and they’ll be getting their prize soon. thanks to the several hundred people who entered. more competitions soon!
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