A song that would work well in a future movie from Wes Anderson, who has directed such wonderful movies as Rushmore, The Royal Tenebaums, & The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It has a charm and warmth to it, with a visceral charm all it’s own. I enjoyed the Indian clans type of drumming and the vocal humming and cooing through out the track.
bio from last.fm:
Sigur Rós is an Icelandic “slow-motion rock” band (according to the band’s own definition) with post-rock and shoegaze elements. The name is pronounced “see-or rous”. It is derived from the Icelandic name of lead vocalist Jónsi Birgisson’s little sister Sigurrósa, and translated means “victory rose.” Some of the band’s contemporaries include múm and Amiina, both of which hail from the same creative and vibrant Icelandic music scene. The band has just released their first ever foray into filmmaking with their tour documentary, Heima.
History
Jón Þór (Jónsi) Birgisson, Georg Hólm and Ãgúst Ævar Gunnarsson formed the group in ReykjavÃk, Iceland in August 1994. 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 Ãgætis 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. Drummer Ãgúst left the band after the recording of Ãgætis Byrjun and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason.
After the release of Ãgætis 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.
Released Rimur in early 2001, Sigur Rós set out to record some songs in their newly-completed álafoss swimming pool studio with their friend Steindór Andersen who is a fisherman and chairman of the Icelandic poetry society, called Iðunn. Steindór is a chanter/singer of the traditional Icelandic epic poetry form called RÃmur. Only a 1000 copies of the EP were printed and sold in the spring tour of 2001.
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. Famously all of the lyrics on ( ) 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.
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…), 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. HoppÃpolla, 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.
An extended Sæglópur EP was released on July 10th in most parts of the world and on August 8th in the United States. Its original release date was May 8th, but because of the sudden demand of “HoppÃpolla”, especially in the UK due to its inclusion on BBC’s ‘Planet Earth’, it was pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós recorded three new songs for the EP (Refur, Ófriður, and Kafari).
Sigur Rós has sold over 2 million albums worldwide.
As of July 2006, Sigur Rós are at the end of a major world tour with stops in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. They are currently playing a series of free outdoor concerts throughout Iceland, planned for late July through early August. The Icelandic dates are being filmed and recorded for a DVD release in the future.
“13 january: sigur rós have begun recording their new album and expect to finish it later this year. according to georg, it remains to be seen whether the band will be taking a new direction on the album. “we have finished recording a few songs but some more things need to be done. we don’t know exactly where the album is heading yet. we are really just experimenting at this stage. some of the songs we recorded are old songs which we had written a while ago, unreleased material which we never got a chance to finish. we decided it was time they were recorded.” georg believes the album could be released this year but nothing is confirmed at this point.”
The Hvarf/Heim double album was released on November 5th 2007, comprising two separate albums. Hvarf contains reworkings of songs dating back to the bands’ first album, whereas Heim contains live acoustic versions of more well known songs.
Albums
* Von (Hope) (1997)
* Von Brigði (Hope Alteration) (1998)
* Ãgætis byrjun (An Alright Start) (1999) UK peak: #52. Voted best Icelandic album of the 20th century[1]
* ( ) (2002) #51 US, two Grammy nominations, one for Best Alternative Music Album, the other for Best Recording Package
* Takk… (Thanks…) (2005) #16 UK (Gold Album), #27 US, #1 Iceland, #5 Portugal (Gold Album) #18 AUS
* Hvarf/Heim (2007) double albumSingles and EPs
* Svefn-g-englar (1999)
* Ný batterà (2000)
* Steindór Andersen / RÃmur EP (2001)
* Untitled 1 (a.k.a. Vaka) (2003)
* Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do (2004)
* HoppÃpolla (2005) #24 UK
* Sæglópur (2006)
* Hljómalind (2007)DVDs/Films
Heima (2007) – Documentary showing footage of the band’s tour of Iceland, including live footage and interviews. The official web site is www.heimafilm.com and the US site is www.hvarf-heim.com
myspace