Hello, there was this season's first official F1 training this week and Mercedes flew out of the blocks and they had a new gimmick adjustable front wheel steering, something that looks rather retro, just in case the drivers might get bored. Well they were the fastest and the rest said we're just testing. Vettel was sick the first day and the next day his Ferrari was sick, last year they were the fastest but a month later at the first race they didn't impress..just saying
Today's artist excels over pretty much all other (heavy) rock music is that while many have looked across space for inspiration and atmosphere, our boys instead went into the earth. and who knows what impossible number of variables had to come together just so in order to create that magic (yes) that they have, regardless of explanation. that these musicians have gone on to tour and sell-out shows in europe, the americas, and the pacific (something relatively few musicians do) speaks quite a bit considering their unique sound. or vice-versa, because they don't really sound like anyone else, right? They're as much slowcore as they are post-rock, and they certainly have their orchestral, operatic, and minimalistic moments as well, in short ' Victory Rose ' evokes (strong) emotions. .......N-Joy
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Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed the group in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name is Icelandic wordplay: while the individual words Sigur and Rós mean, respectively, Victory and Rose, "Victory Rose" wouldn't be grammatically correct; the name is actually borrowed from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós, who was born a few days before the band was formed, and then split into two words. They soon won a record deal with the local Sugarcubes-owned record label Bad Taste, because they thought the falsetto vocals were very cute and would appeal to teenage girls. In 1997, they released Von meaning "hope" and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði This name is also Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "variations on Von". The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and has contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work
International acclaim came with 1999's Ágætis byrjun (A Good Beginning"). The band attracted a huge critical acclaim throughout the world in the second half of 2000, particularly in america, after they made the move to offer it as a free download on Napster, who impressed by it, really brought them into the picture. Tens of thousands downloads later and the musiclabels were in a franctic hunt to sign them, they ended up with MCA who let them retain the most artistic freedom. The band toured north america for the first time in april and may 2001, and the vast majority of the dates sold out straight away. perhaps due to the hype in the american media, the shows were attended by many big name celebrities, somewhat to the band's bemusement.The album's reputation spread by word of mouth over the following two years. Soon critics worldwide were praising it effusively, and the band was playing support to established acts such as Radiohead. Three songs, "Ágætis byrjun", "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take, from a summer 2000 concert in Denmark, of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (later 'unnamed' "Untitled #4") appeared in the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky. Sigur Rós spent the first three months of 2001 off the road, setting up their own studio and making their third album. Meanwhile, Ágætis Byrjun found a label in the U.S. and worldwide press became increasingly positive and varied; both Entertainment Weekly and The Wire ran features on the band. The group began touring again in April, playing more shows in Europe, a handful in the States, and several more in Japan throughout the remainder of the year. By the end of the year, Ágætis Byrjun had won the Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music; it was also declared Iceland's Best Album of the Century.
In 2001, Sigur Rós christened their newly completed studio by recording an EP titled Rímur with an Icelandic fisherman named Steindór Andersen. The EP contains six songs, all of which feature Steindór Andersen reciting traditional Icelandic rímur poetry. Sigur Rós accompany him on three songs. Two songs feature Steindór alone. The last song on the EP, "Lækurinn", is a duet with Sigurður Sigurðarson. A thousand copies of the EP were printed and sold during the spring tour of 2001. The EP was sold in a blank-white-paper case. In 2001 the band toured in Canada, performing at Massey Hall in Toronto in September. 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. All of the lyrics on ( ) are sung in Vonlenska, also known as Hopelandic, a language without semantic meaning, which resembles the phonology 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.
In 2002, the band also wrote an original score for the Bodyscript dance production by Wayne McGregor Random Dance in collaboration with Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Arts Council England. Sigur Rós collaborated with Radiohead in October 2003 to compose music for Merce Cunningham's dance piece Split Sides; Sigur Rós's three tracks were released on the March 2004 EP Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do.
Their fourth album, Takk... (["Thanks...") employs the distinctive sound of their second album in a more rock oriented structure with greater use of the guitar, and was released in September 2005. "Hoppípolla" "Hopping into puddles"), the second official single from Takk..., was released in November alongside a new studio remake of "Hafsól" ("Ocean Sun"), a song that was previously released on the band's 1997 debut, Von. "Hoppípolla" was used in the trailers for the BBC's natural history series Planet Earth in 2006, as well as the closing credits for the 2006 FA Cup final, ITV's coverage of the 2006 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, advertisements for the BBC's coverage of England games during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, on television advertisements for RTÉ's Gaelic games coverage in Ireland, and on an advertisement for Oxfam. It was also used in the final scene of the movie Penelope, for the trailer of the film Children of Men and for the trailer of the film Slumdog Millionaire.
An extended Sæglópur EP was released in July 2006 in most parts of the world and in August in the United States. Its original release was scheduled in May, but because of the sudden demand of "Hoppípolla" it was pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós recorded three new songs to appear on the EP ("Refur", "Ó friður", and "Kafari"). In July 2006, Sigur Rós finished a major world tour with stops in Europe, the United States (where they played a headline show at the Hollywood Bowl), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. Upon return to their homeland, Sigur Rós provided a series of free surprise outdoor concerts throughout Iceland in July and August, playing in various venues such as abandoned bunkers and community coffee shops, all of which were included in the 2007 documentary film Heima. They also performed twice in the United States in February.
In August 2007, a limited DVD+CD edition of the 2002 soundtrack to the documentary Hlemmur was released. Hvarf/Heim was released on 5 November (6 November in the U.S.), a double compilation album containing studio versions of previously unreleased songs — "Salka" [ˈsalka], "Hljómalind" (formerly known as "Rokklagið"), "Í Gær" [i ˈcaɪ̯r] and "Von" on Hvarf, and acoustic studio versions of the songs: "Samskeyti" "Starálfur""Vaka" "Ágætis Byrjun", "Heysátan" and "Von", on Heim. On the same day (20 November in the U.S.) Heima, a live DVD of the previous summer's Iceland tour, was released. Just prior to the release of Hvarf/Heim, on 29 October, a single named "Hljómalind" was released.
The band's fifth regular studio album Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust ("with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly"), recorded with producer Flood in downtown Reykjavík, was released in June 2008 to generally positive reviews. Stylistically different from their earlier releases, it featured fewer strings and more guitar, and had more pop-oriented songs, making it "the group's most accessible effort" while maintaining the "majestic beauty that defines the band's music. The final track "All Alright" is the band's first to be sung in English, though all the other lyrics are in Icelandic.
The band were announced as a headlining act for the 2008 Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, Latitude Festival 2008, and the 2008 La Route du Rock Festival in St Malo, France. In addition, the band performed a late-night set at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where they blew a speaker at the end of their second song. Jónsi Birgisson commented, "The piano is exploding, I think," one of the few things spoken in English. The band released the first song from the album titled "Gobbledigook" for free on their website, along with a music video. On 8 June, the whole album was made available for free streaming on their website and Last.fm.
In autumn 2008 Sigur Rós embarked on a world tour supporting their newly released album. The band played as a four-piece without Amiina and the brass band, the first time the band had played as a four-piece in seven years. The tour started on 17 September 2008 in the United States, at the United Palace Theater in New York City, and finished with a concert in Reykjavík at Laugardalshöll on 23 November 2008. The majority of the tour was European with the exception of concerts in the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan.
The group ended its hiatus in April of 2010, playing a set at the Coachella Festival. In October of 2011, they released their first live album, Inni, a document of their 2008 tour. Their understated sixth studio album, Valtari (Steamroller), was issued in May of the following year. Quickly returning, Sigur Rós took their sound in a darker, more aggressive direction with their seventh album, 2013's Kveikur, which found them pushing their sound into unsettling areas. After the album's release the band stayed busy touring. They also branched out, making appearances on both the animated series The Simpsons and HBO's Game of Thrones. In 2017, they collaborated with Somers on two instrumental recordings for a season four episode of Black Mirror. Also that year, to coincide with their own Norður og Niður Festival in Iceland, they released the soundtrack/film production Route One, as well as the Jónsi and Somers EP All Animals. Both albums were also reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day, and released to digital platforms in 2018.
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Hlemmur, is a soundtrack, so you should not ask for continuity, since its original mission is to accompany a film, and not be a musical work, but film. A soundtrack is a piece from which minutes of music are extracted to add to a movie, in some ways its purpose is dismemberment in order to accompany a moment. This album is perfect company, but also a good album (in the musical), and there is its beauty, which is its overreach, the elimination of the music-cinematic border, and having a beautiful duality. Hlemmur contains short but well-formed ideas for small sections of this film that few have seen. The synths and ambience are quite soothing and relaxing, bringing to mind the past generally and occasionally punctured by some lo-fi drumming and looped vocals. There's nothing critically strenuous here and is a bit bland if you want to listen to something, but as a partner to something else - be it the film, that essay you've been putting off, or even cleaning up - this is the one.
Sigur Rós - Hlemmur (flac 164mb)
01 Jósep Tekur Fimmuna Í Vinnuna 3:04
02 Hlemmur 1:38
03 Fyrsta ferð 2:35
04 Vetur 1:47
05 Hvalir í útrýmingarhættu 3:00
06 Hlemmur 2 0:43
07 Þversögn 2:09
08 1970 1:14
09 Jósep Tekur Fimmuna Í Vinnuna 2 1:47
10 Ég mun læknast! 1:54
11 1993 1:12
12 Hlemmur 3 1:19
13 Síðasta ferð 2:38
14 23:20 (Lokað) 1:42
15 Byrgið 1:36
16 Áfram ísland 1:22
17 Allt tekur sinn tíma! 2:46
18 Hannes 2:39
19 Óskabörn Þjóðarinnar 4:45
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Sigur is a nice companion release to the full ( ) album. Track 1 is Vaka, the same opening song as on the album. Track 2 was intended to be a remix of Vaka but became something a little different. Tracks 3 and 4 were played together on tour under the title Smáskífa; they are more ambient-ish and experimental. The band would later repeat this release style with the Sæglópur EP accompanying Takk...
Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do was written as accompaniment for Merce Cunningham's 'Split Sides' dance piece (this being the Sigur Rós half - the other half was written by Radiohead and remains unreleased), Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do is SR at their most experimental. Entirely instrumental save the voice sample saying the titular words, it's composed mainly with mallet instruments, and serves as a kind of precursor to the band's work in similar fashion, especially on Takk... . There was a time when I thought this release simply a throwaway EP, but have recently come to see the light; in at least two of the sections of the piece, there is this ethereal, full, lifting climax of sweet strings and synthesizers, and the mallet instruments ebb and flow around it. Absolutely stunning moment if you're sitting there vegetating and avoiding essay writing. Highly recommended if you're into the band's experimental tendencies. The main song, "Sæglópur", is really huge and it gives you goosegumps! Definately, or else you're a musically dead. Now this is an EP, which means it has some extra tracks! The titles on the extra tracks are inspired by words in the Sæglópur-lyrics.
The first of the three non album tracks, "Refur", has nice and kind of cozy harmonies on piano. Though almost 3 minutes of just the same chord being strum, is kind of boring. Sounds like an endless outro. The second track, "Ó Fridur", is the most interesting one. The start is a bit annoying, but also kind of cool, but here, as on the previous track, it goes on for too long. After what seems like an eternity, we get to the nice part, where we even get some singing! This is in hopelandic, and suits the song well, and makes you feel you didn't waste 3 minutes of your life after all. "Kafari" is the last song on the EP, and unfortunately, just a lot of "pling plong".
Sigur Ros - Sigur + Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do + Sæglópur EP's (flac 360mb)
01 Sigur 1 Untitled 6:43
02 Sigur 9A Untitled 4:38
03 Sigur 9B Untitled 2:47
04 Sigur 9C Untitled 4:22
01 Ba Ba 6:12
02 Ti Ki 8:49
03 Di Do 5:42
01 Sæglópur 8:11
02 Refur 2:45
03 Ó Fridur 4:47
04 Kafari 6:10
05 Hafsól 9:59
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A strange thing happens before the two-minute mark in "Saeglopur." All the twinkling and cooing erupts, at what might seem like eight minutes earlier than normal, into a cathartic blast of tautly constructed group noise -- or, as those who prefer songs and motion over moods and atmospheres might say, "The good part comes." "Saeglopur" is emblematic of Sigur Rós' fourth album, released nearly three years (!) after ( ). Nothing resembles a drone, and no part of it could be described as funereal. Even so, Takk... is still very much a Sigur Rós album, due in large part to the ever-present otherworldly vocals, but also because the only real changes are the activeness of some arrangements -- arrangements that deploy a familiar combination of bass, drums, piano, vocals, lots of strings, and some horns -- and some of the colors that are used. Despite opening with what sounds like a happy walk through a snow bank, the album is just as suited for a sunlit spring morning as ( ) was suited for a winter trudge across a foggy moor, so in that sense, it isn't a repeat and is more tactile than illusory, but it's not likely to win over anyone who suddenly felt an index finger push against the back of his throat while hearing "Svefn-G-Englar" for the first time. And it's not as if the band is suddenly writing three-minute pop songs, either. Half of the album's tracks are longer than six minutes, with extended cresting, sudden bursts of action, and a couple particularly fragile moments that seem to be on the brink of melting away. One thing to consider when wondering whether or not this band has changed in any way: they've gone from providing the background music to death announcements to "Sé Lest," a fluttering children's lullaby that is briefly crashed by an even more gleeful oom-pah-pah brass band.
Sigur Ros - Takk ( flac 304mb)
01 Intro (1:36)
02 Svefn-g-englar (10:04)
03 Starálfur (6:47)
04 Flugufrelsarinn (7:47)
05 Ný Batterí (8:11)
06 Hjartað Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm) (7:10)
07 Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása (10:18)
08 Olsen Olsen (8:03)
09 Ágætis Byrjun (7:56)
10 Avalon (4:00)
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After floating in the same cirrus clouds for a decade, it would seem that the time has come for a change. Not to say that the lulling orchestral swells or Jon Birgisson's schoolboy falsetto have lost any of their magic over time; it's just that after releasing 40-some similar-sounding songs with undecipherable lyrics, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate one from the next. However, Hvarf/Heim isn't the album to mark a musical departure for Sigur Rós. The bandmembers show no real sign of abandoning their style, so it seems understandable that they would want to show fans another side of themselves. Disc one, Hvarf, is a five-track collection of rarities from their vaults. The handful of tracks doesn't quite make for a fulfilling full-length, but with two of the songs almost hitting the ten-minute mark, the disc's entirety feels much longer than a mere EP. Consistently sprawling and lunar, the songs would feel right at home on Takk... or ( ). The standout track, "Hljómalind," is one of the more concise and traditional songs crafted over their journey, with the traditional instrumentation of reversed chimes and bowed guitar delays sawing textures into the fabric of the song, just before giving way to a powerful rock chorus from the mouth of a gently meowing alien. The traditional slow build is ignored for dynamics, and an unusually tangible hook hits like an old-fashioned punch to the face. The second disc, Heim, is comprised of six acoustically performed versions of favorites from their back catalog. Surprisingly, these songs don't sound remarkably different from the originals. Even without an electric guitar droning, they aren't sparse or minimal in the least, due to an additional string quartet, Amiina, filling in the gaps to create a lush soundscape. The reworkings are subtle, but the versions of "Samskeyti" and "Starálfur" remain beautiful and are slightly warmer and even more fragile than the originals. Completists will find this double-disc supplement of material appealing, and new fans wanting to get a quick feel for the band will probably enjoy it too, but the true excitement revolving around this promises to be in the accompanying release of the Heima DVD, a documentary -- with gorgeous cinematography -- that follows Sigur Rós' 2006 tour of their homeland and features music from these discs, which is perfectly fitting for a slow-motion shot of an iceberg melting in a spring sunrise.
Sigur Ros - Hvarf + Heim (flac 375mb)
Hvarf
01 Salka 7:08
02 Hljómalind 4:02
03 Í Gær 6:26
04 Von 9:15
05 Hafsól 9:55
Heim (Live Acoustic)
06 Samskeyti 5:22
07 Starálfur 5:28
08 Vaka 5:20
09 Ágætis Byrjun 6:36
10 Heysátan 4:43
11 Von 8:43
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Today's artist excels over pretty much all other (heavy) rock music is that while many have looked across space for inspiration and atmosphere, our boys instead went into the earth. and who knows what impossible number of variables had to come together just so in order to create that magic (yes) that they have, regardless of explanation. that these musicians have gone on to tour and sell-out shows in europe, the americas, and the pacific (something relatively few musicians do) speaks quite a bit considering their unique sound. or vice-versa, because they don't really sound like anyone else, right? They're as much slowcore as they are post-rock, and they certainly have their orchestral, operatic, and minimalistic moments as well, in short ' Victory Rose ' evokes (strong) emotions. .......N-Joy
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Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed the group in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name is Icelandic wordplay: while the individual words Sigur and Rós mean, respectively, Victory and Rose, "Victory Rose" wouldn't be grammatically correct; the name is actually borrowed from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós, who was born a few days before the band was formed, and then split into two words. They soon won a record deal with the local Sugarcubes-owned record label Bad Taste, because they thought the falsetto vocals were very cute and would appeal to teenage girls. In 1997, they released Von meaning "hope" and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði This name is also Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "variations on Von". The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and has contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work
International acclaim came with 1999's Ágætis byrjun (A Good Beginning"). The band attracted a huge critical acclaim throughout the world in the second half of 2000, particularly in america, after they made the move to offer it as a free download on Napster, who impressed by it, really brought them into the picture. Tens of thousands downloads later and the musiclabels were in a franctic hunt to sign them, they ended up with MCA who let them retain the most artistic freedom. The band toured north america for the first time in april and may 2001, and the vast majority of the dates sold out straight away. perhaps due to the hype in the american media, the shows were attended by many big name celebrities, somewhat to the band's bemusement.The album's reputation spread by word of mouth over the following two years. Soon critics worldwide were praising it effusively, and the band was playing support to established acts such as Radiohead. Three songs, "Ágætis byrjun", "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take, from a summer 2000 concert in Denmark, of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (later 'unnamed' "Untitled #4") appeared in the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky. Sigur Rós spent the first three months of 2001 off the road, setting up their own studio and making their third album. Meanwhile, Ágætis Byrjun found a label in the U.S. and worldwide press became increasingly positive and varied; both Entertainment Weekly and The Wire ran features on the band. The group began touring again in April, playing more shows in Europe, a handful in the States, and several more in Japan throughout the remainder of the year. By the end of the year, Ágætis Byrjun had won the Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music; it was also declared Iceland's Best Album of the Century.
In 2001, Sigur Rós christened their newly completed studio by recording an EP titled Rímur with an Icelandic fisherman named Steindór Andersen. The EP contains six songs, all of which feature Steindór Andersen reciting traditional Icelandic rímur poetry. Sigur Rós accompany him on three songs. Two songs feature Steindór alone. The last song on the EP, "Lækurinn", is a duet with Sigurður Sigurðarson. A thousand copies of the EP were printed and sold during the spring tour of 2001. The EP was sold in a blank-white-paper case. In 2001 the band toured in Canada, performing at Massey Hall in Toronto in September. 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. All of the lyrics on ( ) are sung in Vonlenska, also known as Hopelandic, a language without semantic meaning, which resembles the phonology 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.
In 2002, the band also wrote an original score for the Bodyscript dance production by Wayne McGregor Random Dance in collaboration with Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Arts Council England. Sigur Rós collaborated with Radiohead in October 2003 to compose music for Merce Cunningham's dance piece Split Sides; Sigur Rós's three tracks were released on the March 2004 EP Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do.
Their fourth album, Takk... (["Thanks...") employs the distinctive sound of their second album in a more rock oriented structure with greater use of the guitar, and was released in September 2005. "Hoppípolla" "Hopping into puddles"), the second official single from Takk..., was released in November alongside a new studio remake of "Hafsól" ("Ocean Sun"), a song that was previously released on the band's 1997 debut, Von. "Hoppípolla" was used in the trailers for the BBC's natural history series Planet Earth in 2006, as well as the closing credits for the 2006 FA Cup final, ITV's coverage of the 2006 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, advertisements for the BBC's coverage of England games during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, on television advertisements for RTÉ's Gaelic games coverage in Ireland, and on an advertisement for Oxfam. It was also used in the final scene of the movie Penelope, for the trailer of the film Children of Men and for the trailer of the film Slumdog Millionaire.
An extended Sæglópur EP was released in July 2006 in most parts of the world and in August in the United States. Its original release was scheduled in May, but because of the sudden demand of "Hoppípolla" it was pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós recorded three new songs to appear on the EP ("Refur", "Ó friður", and "Kafari"). In July 2006, Sigur Rós finished a major world tour with stops in Europe, the United States (where they played a headline show at the Hollywood Bowl), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. Upon return to their homeland, Sigur Rós provided a series of free surprise outdoor concerts throughout Iceland in July and August, playing in various venues such as abandoned bunkers and community coffee shops, all of which were included in the 2007 documentary film Heima. They also performed twice in the United States in February.
In August 2007, a limited DVD+CD edition of the 2002 soundtrack to the documentary Hlemmur was released. Hvarf/Heim was released on 5 November (6 November in the U.S.), a double compilation album containing studio versions of previously unreleased songs — "Salka" [ˈsalka], "Hljómalind" (formerly known as "Rokklagið"), "Í Gær" [i ˈcaɪ̯r] and "Von" on Hvarf, and acoustic studio versions of the songs: "Samskeyti" "Starálfur""Vaka" "Ágætis Byrjun", "Heysátan" and "Von", on Heim. On the same day (20 November in the U.S.) Heima, a live DVD of the previous summer's Iceland tour, was released. Just prior to the release of Hvarf/Heim, on 29 October, a single named "Hljómalind" was released.
The band's fifth regular studio album Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust ("with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly"), recorded with producer Flood in downtown Reykjavík, was released in June 2008 to generally positive reviews. Stylistically different from their earlier releases, it featured fewer strings and more guitar, and had more pop-oriented songs, making it "the group's most accessible effort" while maintaining the "majestic beauty that defines the band's music. The final track "All Alright" is the band's first to be sung in English, though all the other lyrics are in Icelandic.
The band were announced as a headlining act for the 2008 Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, Latitude Festival 2008, and the 2008 La Route du Rock Festival in St Malo, France. In addition, the band performed a late-night set at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where they blew a speaker at the end of their second song. Jónsi Birgisson commented, "The piano is exploding, I think," one of the few things spoken in English. The band released the first song from the album titled "Gobbledigook" for free on their website, along with a music video. On 8 June, the whole album was made available for free streaming on their website and Last.fm.
In autumn 2008 Sigur Rós embarked on a world tour supporting their newly released album. The band played as a four-piece without Amiina and the brass band, the first time the band had played as a four-piece in seven years. The tour started on 17 September 2008 in the United States, at the United Palace Theater in New York City, and finished with a concert in Reykjavík at Laugardalshöll on 23 November 2008. The majority of the tour was European with the exception of concerts in the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan.
The group ended its hiatus in April of 2010, playing a set at the Coachella Festival. In October of 2011, they released their first live album, Inni, a document of their 2008 tour. Their understated sixth studio album, Valtari (Steamroller), was issued in May of the following year. Quickly returning, Sigur Rós took their sound in a darker, more aggressive direction with their seventh album, 2013's Kveikur, which found them pushing their sound into unsettling areas. After the album's release the band stayed busy touring. They also branched out, making appearances on both the animated series The Simpsons and HBO's Game of Thrones. In 2017, they collaborated with Somers on two instrumental recordings for a season four episode of Black Mirror. Also that year, to coincide with their own Norður og Niður Festival in Iceland, they released the soundtrack/film production Route One, as well as the Jónsi and Somers EP All Animals. Both albums were also reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day, and released to digital platforms in 2018.
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Hlemmur, is a soundtrack, so you should not ask for continuity, since its original mission is to accompany a film, and not be a musical work, but film. A soundtrack is a piece from which minutes of music are extracted to add to a movie, in some ways its purpose is dismemberment in order to accompany a moment. This album is perfect company, but also a good album (in the musical), and there is its beauty, which is its overreach, the elimination of the music-cinematic border, and having a beautiful duality. Hlemmur contains short but well-formed ideas for small sections of this film that few have seen. The synths and ambience are quite soothing and relaxing, bringing to mind the past generally and occasionally punctured by some lo-fi drumming and looped vocals. There's nothing critically strenuous here and is a bit bland if you want to listen to something, but as a partner to something else - be it the film, that essay you've been putting off, or even cleaning up - this is the one.
Sigur Rós - Hlemmur (flac 164mb)
01 Jósep Tekur Fimmuna Í Vinnuna 3:04
02 Hlemmur 1:38
03 Fyrsta ferð 2:35
04 Vetur 1:47
05 Hvalir í útrýmingarhættu 3:00
06 Hlemmur 2 0:43
07 Þversögn 2:09
08 1970 1:14
09 Jósep Tekur Fimmuna Í Vinnuna 2 1:47
10 Ég mun læknast! 1:54
11 1993 1:12
12 Hlemmur 3 1:19
13 Síðasta ferð 2:38
14 23:20 (Lokað) 1:42
15 Byrgið 1:36
16 Áfram ísland 1:22
17 Allt tekur sinn tíma! 2:46
18 Hannes 2:39
19 Óskabörn Þjóðarinnar 4:45
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Sigur is a nice companion release to the full ( ) album. Track 1 is Vaka, the same opening song as on the album. Track 2 was intended to be a remix of Vaka but became something a little different. Tracks 3 and 4 were played together on tour under the title Smáskífa; they are more ambient-ish and experimental. The band would later repeat this release style with the Sæglópur EP accompanying Takk...
Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do was written as accompaniment for Merce Cunningham's 'Split Sides' dance piece (this being the Sigur Rós half - the other half was written by Radiohead and remains unreleased), Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do is SR at their most experimental. Entirely instrumental save the voice sample saying the titular words, it's composed mainly with mallet instruments, and serves as a kind of precursor to the band's work in similar fashion, especially on Takk... . There was a time when I thought this release simply a throwaway EP, but have recently come to see the light; in at least two of the sections of the piece, there is this ethereal, full, lifting climax of sweet strings and synthesizers, and the mallet instruments ebb and flow around it. Absolutely stunning moment if you're sitting there vegetating and avoiding essay writing. Highly recommended if you're into the band's experimental tendencies. The main song, "Sæglópur", is really huge and it gives you goosegumps! Definately, or else you're a musically dead. Now this is an EP, which means it has some extra tracks! The titles on the extra tracks are inspired by words in the Sæglópur-lyrics.
The first of the three non album tracks, "Refur", has nice and kind of cozy harmonies on piano. Though almost 3 minutes of just the same chord being strum, is kind of boring. Sounds like an endless outro. The second track, "Ó Fridur", is the most interesting one. The start is a bit annoying, but also kind of cool, but here, as on the previous track, it goes on for too long. After what seems like an eternity, we get to the nice part, where we even get some singing! This is in hopelandic, and suits the song well, and makes you feel you didn't waste 3 minutes of your life after all. "Kafari" is the last song on the EP, and unfortunately, just a lot of "pling plong".
Sigur Ros - Sigur + Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do + Sæglópur EP's (flac 360mb)
01 Sigur 1 Untitled 6:43
02 Sigur 9A Untitled 4:38
03 Sigur 9B Untitled 2:47
04 Sigur 9C Untitled 4:22
01 Ba Ba 6:12
02 Ti Ki 8:49
03 Di Do 5:42
01 Sæglópur 8:11
02 Refur 2:45
03 Ó Fridur 4:47
04 Kafari 6:10
05 Hafsól 9:59
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A strange thing happens before the two-minute mark in "Saeglopur." All the twinkling and cooing erupts, at what might seem like eight minutes earlier than normal, into a cathartic blast of tautly constructed group noise -- or, as those who prefer songs and motion over moods and atmospheres might say, "The good part comes." "Saeglopur" is emblematic of Sigur Rós' fourth album, released nearly three years (!) after ( ). Nothing resembles a drone, and no part of it could be described as funereal. Even so, Takk... is still very much a Sigur Rós album, due in large part to the ever-present otherworldly vocals, but also because the only real changes are the activeness of some arrangements -- arrangements that deploy a familiar combination of bass, drums, piano, vocals, lots of strings, and some horns -- and some of the colors that are used. Despite opening with what sounds like a happy walk through a snow bank, the album is just as suited for a sunlit spring morning as ( ) was suited for a winter trudge across a foggy moor, so in that sense, it isn't a repeat and is more tactile than illusory, but it's not likely to win over anyone who suddenly felt an index finger push against the back of his throat while hearing "Svefn-G-Englar" for the first time. And it's not as if the band is suddenly writing three-minute pop songs, either. Half of the album's tracks are longer than six minutes, with extended cresting, sudden bursts of action, and a couple particularly fragile moments that seem to be on the brink of melting away. One thing to consider when wondering whether or not this band has changed in any way: they've gone from providing the background music to death announcements to "Sé Lest," a fluttering children's lullaby that is briefly crashed by an even more gleeful oom-pah-pah brass band.
Sigur Ros - Takk ( flac 304mb)
01 Intro (1:36)
02 Svefn-g-englar (10:04)
03 Starálfur (6:47)
04 Flugufrelsarinn (7:47)
05 Ný Batterí (8:11)
06 Hjartað Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm) (7:10)
07 Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása (10:18)
08 Olsen Olsen (8:03)
09 Ágætis Byrjun (7:56)
10 Avalon (4:00)
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After floating in the same cirrus clouds for a decade, it would seem that the time has come for a change. Not to say that the lulling orchestral swells or Jon Birgisson's schoolboy falsetto have lost any of their magic over time; it's just that after releasing 40-some similar-sounding songs with undecipherable lyrics, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate one from the next. However, Hvarf/Heim isn't the album to mark a musical departure for Sigur Rós. The bandmembers show no real sign of abandoning their style, so it seems understandable that they would want to show fans another side of themselves. Disc one, Hvarf, is a five-track collection of rarities from their vaults. The handful of tracks doesn't quite make for a fulfilling full-length, but with two of the songs almost hitting the ten-minute mark, the disc's entirety feels much longer than a mere EP. Consistently sprawling and lunar, the songs would feel right at home on Takk... or ( ). The standout track, "Hljómalind," is one of the more concise and traditional songs crafted over their journey, with the traditional instrumentation of reversed chimes and bowed guitar delays sawing textures into the fabric of the song, just before giving way to a powerful rock chorus from the mouth of a gently meowing alien. The traditional slow build is ignored for dynamics, and an unusually tangible hook hits like an old-fashioned punch to the face. The second disc, Heim, is comprised of six acoustically performed versions of favorites from their back catalog. Surprisingly, these songs don't sound remarkably different from the originals. Even without an electric guitar droning, they aren't sparse or minimal in the least, due to an additional string quartet, Amiina, filling in the gaps to create a lush soundscape. The reworkings are subtle, but the versions of "Samskeyti" and "Starálfur" remain beautiful and are slightly warmer and even more fragile than the originals. Completists will find this double-disc supplement of material appealing, and new fans wanting to get a quick feel for the band will probably enjoy it too, but the true excitement revolving around this promises to be in the accompanying release of the Heima DVD, a documentary -- with gorgeous cinematography -- that follows Sigur Rós' 2006 tour of their homeland and features music from these discs, which is perfectly fitting for a slow-motion shot of an iceberg melting in a spring sunrise.
Sigur Ros - Hvarf + Heim (flac 375mb)
Hvarf
01 Salka 7:08
02 Hljómalind 4:02
03 Í Gær 6:26
04 Von 9:15
05 Hafsól 9:55
Heim (Live Acoustic)
06 Samskeyti 5:22
07 Starálfur 5:28
08 Vaka 5:20
09 Ágætis Byrjun 6:36
10 Heysátan 4:43
11 Von 8:43
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