Category: Music

S

igur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical, and minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound and lead singer Jónsi Birgisson’s falsetto voice. An extended Sæglópur EP was released, featured three new songs, which are said to be somewhere in between Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do, untitled #9 from the Vaka EP, and the end of “Glósóli”. The EP also includes a DVD with all three music videos. Unlike its predecessor , the album’s lyrics are mostly in Icelandic, with occasional elements of Vonlenska (“Hopelandic”), a scat-like form of gibberish. The songs “Andvari”, “Gong” and “Mílanó” are sung entirely in Vonlenska. Moreover, the song “Mílanó” was written together with the string quartet Amiina. The BBC has frequently used tracks from Takk… in its programmes. “Hoppípolla” was employed as the backing music to trailers for the highly-acclaimed nature series Planet Earth and for the end credit of Match of the Day broadcasting the FA Cup Final. “Sæglópur” has been used as a backing tune for the BBC’s advertising campaign for the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, while snips of “Sæglópur”, “Milanó” and “Svo hljótt” appeared in Top Gear. “Sæglópur” was also notably used in Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia E3 2008 gameplay debut trailer as well as their televised commercials for the game. Sigur Rós received three awards at the Icelandic Music Awards in 2006: Best Album Design (along with Ísak Winther, Alex Somers and Lukka Sigurðardóttir), Best Alternative Act and Best Rock Album for Takk… Named in part after a sister of one of the bandmembers, Reykjavik, Iceland’s Sigur Rós (Victory Rose) was formed by guitarist and vocalist Jon Thor Birgisson, bassist Georg Holm, and drummer Agust. Formed in early 1994 while the members were teenagers, the trio’s first recorded song earned them a deal with Iceland’s Bad Taste label. Their sprawling debut LP, Von (Hope), was released in 1997, followed the next year by a collection of remixes from that album, Recycle Bin. Kjartan Sveinsson joined the band on keyboards and the band recorded 1999′s strings-heavy Ágætis Byrjun (Good Start), earning themselves numerous accolades in their homeland and achieving platinum status in sales. Agust then departed and was quickly replaced by Orri Páll DýRason. Svefn-G-Englar, their first release to be distributed outside of their native country, was hailed as NME’s Single of the Week during September of 1999, launching a press hype steamroller in the U.K. and — to a lesser extent — in the U.S. The “Ný Battery” single was issued in early 2000, the band’s breakout year. British independent Fat Cat began distributing the band, stretching their reach beyond Icelanders and rabid journalists. April dates in England with Godspeed You! Black Emperor were capped off by an appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, and they also opened several dates of Radiohead’s European tour before year’s end. ….