October 05, 2013

Music Saturday: Sigur Rós

Every week again... we're presenting another album of bands or singers we currently love.
This week: Sigur Rós - Kveikur


Sigur Rós is a band from Iceland, known for their post-rock and ethereal sound. Founded in 1994 in Reykjavík, the band now consists of Jónsi Birgisson, frontman, Georg Hólm and Orri Páll Dýrason. 
The name originates from Jónsi's sister, who is called Sigurrós Elin.
Sigur Rós was formed by Jónsi (who also happens to have a solo career), Georg Hólm and Ágúst Gunnarsson who left the band in 1999. In 1997 they released Von, their first album and were joined by Kjartan Sveinsson in 1998, who also happens to be the only member with musical training. This musical training has helped them to form a lot of orchestral and string arrangements for their later work. After the release of their second album they became more famous internationally. The album's reputation spread by word of mouth and many critics praised it as one of the great albums of all time. This album also made them well known for reverb accentuated guitar work (by use of a cello's bow), done by Jónsi.  

Inside of the LP. They always try to make their albums look as great as possible!

They have seven albums, Kveikur being the newest one which came out in 2013. The cover is a photo by the brazilian artist Lygia Clark. The album received generally positive reviews and shows a new direction both musically and thematically. Pitchfork gave the album a 8.1 out of 10 possible points.

"Kveikur has structure and, hello, grit like never before" - The Rolling Stone

"Returning with unexpected speed and unprecedented vitality, Kveikur is the big payback; a bracing record of pummeling post-rock, eerie hauntology and concentrated pop splendor, Sigur Rós finally acknowledge their impact by beating all of their acolytes at their own game." - Pitchfork


Titles:
1) Brennisteinn
2) Hrafntinna
3) Ísjaki
4) Yfirboro
5) Stormur
6) Kveikur
7) Rafstraumur
8) Blapraour
9) Var
Vinyl bonus:
10) Hryggjarsúla
11) Ofbirta
12) Brennisteinn (Blanck Mass Remix)


Style: Sigur Rós has classical and minimalist aesthetic elements incorporated into their music. The band is well known for its use of the Icelandic language and Vonlenska, a language firstly introduced on their album Von and mainly used by Jónsi himself. Vonlenska is a sort of 'nonsense' language that just fits to the music.

Thanks for reading!

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