Sigur Rós Give Something Back

Sigur Rós is Iceland's most beloved band and the biggest home-grown sensation since the Sugarcubes. This week they return from an extensive world tour that commenced almost a year ago supporting their latest album Takk. Takk is Icelandic for "thank you," and Sigur Rós intends to thank the locals for their support throughout the years with a gigantic outdoor concert at Klambratún park in Reykjavík on July 30th. Admission to the Sunday night, family-friendly event is free - everybody is welcome. The concert will also be broadcast live via satellite to the National Film Theatre in London. On the world tour Sigur Rós played their largest shows to date, and they will end the tour at home playing a series of unpublished low-key shows around the country, perhaps their smallest shows to date. During the two-week tour Sigur Rós will be followed by a film crew. The band will then be taking a well-deserved break before beginning work on their next project, whatever that will be.

Sigur Rós is Jón Þór Birgisson, Kjartan Sveinsson, Georg Hólm and Orri Páll Dýrason and the Icelandic shows are meant to give something back to their country. This is Sigur Rós¿s first tour around Iceland since 1999, as they have been preoccupied with entertaining people around the world. The film crew will document Sigur Rós in its most natural environment, and focus on the everyday life of each place seen through the eyes of Sigur Rós. They want to capture the atmosphere of each place and play for the locals; therefore, the dates will not be revealed in advance. This is Sigur Rós¿s journey through its own land.

Wrestling with the Pop Aesthetic

Sigur Rós's first album Von was released in Iceland in 1997 but it was their second album, 1999¿s Ágætis Byrjun, that made them into international artists. Ágætis Byrjun ended up on numerous critics" top-ten best of" lists and in 2001 Sigur Rós won America's prestigious Shortlist Music Prize, which made them stars of avant-garde rock in the US. The songs on Ágætis Byrjun are sung in Icelandic. The band considered writing English lyrics but decided against it; they had already built a fan base around the world. Therefore they wrestled with the pop aesthetic in a language few speak but everyone can understand. Sigur Rós challenged popular music's conventions on their nameless album, simply called ( ), which was released worldwide in 2002. Language was not an issue and the new songs had vocals but no lyrics. Perhaps a resolution to pop music's language barriers and overly obvious messages. Their latest album Takk was released in September 2005 and quickly became Sigur Rós's largest selling album. Again the band turned to their native tongue and used Icelandic lyrics. Takk has been critically acclaimed all over the world and is the record to justify every amazing claim ever made about this exceptional band. Takk is the work of a band operating at the very top of its game.

Music Born in Fire and Ice

Sigur Rós uses conventional instruments, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and voice in unconventional ways, creating a distinct sound. A string quartet also accompanies the band. Improvization and experimentation is most important and Jón Þór plays his guitar with a violin bow resulting in a unique sound. His voice, though, is perhaps the most unique. Consequently it has become a standard to equate the band¿s strange and mystifying music with its geographical location and reviewers often point to the native landscape as a main influence on the music they create. In interviews Sigur Rós has had to follow in the footsteps of Björk in explaining how unconsciously the surroundings affect their music. Rock critics have tended to describe the band¿s music using a number of clichés such as their music being a sonic transmutation of the Icelandic landscape, and as music from the beginning of the world, born in fire and ice, music evoking dark winters spent in contemplation beyond fathoming and so on.

Although, Sigur Rós admits that being from Iceland probably influences their music in a way they have also had to explain in numerous interviews that the resemblance to landscape is a boring cliché and that they live in Reykjavík, and are not always thinking about glaciers and volcanoes. Associating certain musical sounds with geographical locations is a familiar concept in music criticism but the relationship between the imagined place or a sense of space and the real existing place is not as obvious. While Sigur Rós claims the media portrayal of them being influenced by nature has gone over the top, they reveal that it's not possible to tear away one's roots.

Staying Connected to the Roots

Sigur Rós has some strong characteristics that could be recognized as Icelandic and they stay connected to their roots while travelling the world with their music. For example, while Sigur Rós toured Europe and mesmerized major label executives with Ágætis Byrjun, they made two new songs that were particularly Icelandic, one a novel take on an Icelandic lullaby and the other a reworking of the organ theme that is played on the national radio whenever deaths and funerals are announced. Icelanders were quick to embrace those songs just like Sigur Rós¿s albums. Also, Sigur Rós has taken medieval Icelandic culture on world tours when they have had Steindór Andersen join them in concerts chanting rímur, the medieval Icelandic rhymes. Demonstrating that Sigur Rós is one of those global artists that are capable of wandering the earth with their music while having the integrity to stay connected to their homeland. Now they are at the end of a year-long world tour, promoting their latest album Takk and end the journey by playing a range of outdoor concerts in Icelandic nature, where perhaps their journey began in the first place. -hbv