About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Sigur Rós

Encyclopedia : S : SI : SIG : Sigur Rós

 

Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical and minimalist elements. The name is Icelandic for "victory rose" and is pronounced "see oor rose", or ['sɪɣʏr rous] in the International Phonetic Alphabet, although a more popular (and incorrect) variation in the English-speaking world is 'sigger ross' or 'sigger roy-ss'. The band is known for their ethereal sound and lead singer Jónsi's falsetto. Some of the band's contemporaries include múm and Amiina; both of which hail from the same creative and vibrant Icelandic post-rock music scene.

Contents

History

Jón Þór (Jónsi) Birgisson, Georg Hólm and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson formed the group in Reykjavík in August 1994. Their name is taken from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós, who was born the same day. They soon won a record deal with a local record label, Bad Taste. In 1997, they released Von (Hope) and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði. The name is Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "hope alteration". (In English, the album is sometimes known by the alternative name "Recycle Bin".)

International acclaim came with 1999's Ágætis Byrjun ("An alright start") for which the band were joined by Kjartan Sveinsson. The album's reputation slowly spread by word of mouth over the next two years. Soon many critics worldwide hailed it as one of the best albums of its time and the band was playing with Radiohead and other big names. Three songs, Ágætis Byrjun's title track, its first single "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (to become "Untitled #4") appeared in the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky. Their music has also appeared in 24 (the TV series), and in the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and also the 2005 TV film The Girl in the Café where the song Starálfur was heard.

After the release of Ágætis Byrjun, the band became perhaps most well known for Birgisson's signature style of playing guitar with the bow from a cello, accentuated with reverb, creating a sweeping, fluid sound that is unique for an electric guitar.

Drummer Ágúst left the band after the recording of Ágætis Byrjun and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason. In 2002, their highly anticipated follow-up album ( ) was released. Upon release all tracks on the album were untitled, though the band later published song names on their website. Some lyrics are sung in vonlenska ("Hopelandic"), nonsensical vocalisations which resemble the sound of the Icelandic language. It has also been said that the listener is supposed to interpret their own meanings of the lyrics which can then be written in the blank pages in the album booklet.

Sigur Rós concert in Hong Kong
Enlarge
Sigur Rós concert in Hong Kong

In October of 2003, Sigur Rós joined Radiohead in composing music for Merce Cunningham's dance piece Split Sides; Sigur Rós’s three tracks were named Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do and released in March of 2004. The band's 1997 debut album Von also finally found a U.S. and U.K. release in October of 2004. Their latest album, Takk... (Thanks...), falls between the styles of their first two albums, and was released on September 13, 2005, with a legal download of their first single, Glósóli, made available on August 15. For North American fans, Sæglópur was made available for download on August 16. Hoppípolla, the second official single from Takk..., was released on November 28 alongside a new studio remake of Hafsól, a song which was previously released on the band's 1997 debut, Von. Hoppípolla was used in the trailers for the BBC's natural life programme Planet Earth in 2006, as well as the closing credits for the 2006 FA Cup final and ITV's coverage of the 2006 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, adverts for the BBC's coverage of England games during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and on television advertisements for RTÉ's gaelic games coverage in Ireland. Following this, demand for the single grew. It was made more widely available by EMI in consequence.

An extended Sæglópur EP will be released on July 10th in most parts of the world and on July 11th in North America. Its original release date was May 8th, but because of the sudden demand of "Hoppípolla" it has been pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós have recorded three new songs to appear on the EP (Refur, Ófridur, and Kafari).

Sigur Rós has sold over 2 million albums worldwide.

As of May 2006, Sigur Rós is on a major world tour with stops in throughout Europe, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan.

Band members

Former members

Discography

Albums

Singles and EPs

Other works

Films

External links

References

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: