takk...

Sigur Rós created glowing galvanic moments out of little adventures in the delicate dynamics and swelling strings of this rapturous requital.  The Icelandic quartet had developed their unique ethereal sound over three albums  ('Von'   in 1997,   'Ágætis Byrjun'  in 1999,  and '( )'  in 2002),   three EP's   (Rímur in 2001,  Sigur 1 / Sigur 9 in 2003, and their composition for Merce Cunningham's Split Sides  Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do in 2004),  and the instrumental electronic soundtrack to the documentary Hlemmur  in 2002.   


'Takk...' was recorded at their Sundlaugin "swimming pool" studio near Álafoss, in the town of Mosfellsbær.  The sessions featured  Jón Þór Birgisson on vocals and guitar;   Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards;   Georg Hólm on bass guitar;   and   Orri Páll Dýrason on drums;     with     strings  by   Amiina,  Kristín Lárusdóttir,  Júlía Mogensen,  Stefanía Ólafsdóttir,  Eyjólfur Bjarni Alfreðsson,  Ingrid Karlsdóttir,  Gréta Salóme Stefánsdóttir,  Matthías Stefánsson,  and   Ólöf Júlía Kjartansdóttir;       brass  by    Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson,   Snorri Sigurðarson,  Helgi Hrafn Jónsson,  Samúel Jón Samúelsson,  and  Össur Geirsson;   Frank Aarnink on percussion;   and  Álafosskórinn as the choir on "Hoppípolla".   The band co-produced the album with Ken Thomas.  

Orri Páll Dýrason:   "I think you can hear through the music what kind of mood we were in. We were a bit dazed by the brackets album. Life was weird, so many things were changing and we had no roots. Touring a lot. Now we are secure about ourselves, having gotten used to the whole thing. We are happy...We felt like writing lyrics. The reason there were no lyrics on the last album was that we had written these songs years back with Jónsi singing gibberish vocals to them the entire time. They were fully formed and it would have been strange to suddenly insert lyrics into these finished products. This time we went into the studio with only two old songs and both of them are lyricless. The new songs all have lyrics. It's fun to write lyrics. We all get together and chat a lot." 

Kjartan Sveinsson:  "We're thankful for we've been able to do, and for the appreciation we get. We really love where we are...We didn't set out to do anything. I think it's more heavy-ish and slow...We very rarely try to do anything. It's always just things happen in a way. We're always learning, of course. We did things differently but I'm not sure how to describe it exactly...It always develops. We mess with things until the last moment. So, no, I wouldn't say there's a goal when we start the process...We're just trying to do good music and enjoy it and have fun...We're really bad at practicing. The only time we play together is just when we're writing music. Then of course we play so much when we tour. We would never actually to go to the studio to practice our own songs. That's really boring to us. We should always be writing something new...They're kind of stories, some of them are just a few sentences, and it's all very childlike, fairy tale-y. They're not deep and meaningful lyrics on this album, no! It's more stories, short stories ... We have never been much for concepts even though it sometimes looks like it. Concepts come afterwards. When you look closely at a work it's always easy to find a concept there but we have never approached a project with a predetermined concept in mind. It's not our style, really. Sigur Rós is not a clever band. There are no deep thoughts behind what we are doing...If we don't [agree] we always manage to find a way to work it out. We've played together for so long and know each other inside out...No one is exactly the same. It's like a marriage. You have to nurture the relationship and make comprimises. Otherwise it won't last. This is especially valid for bands who form at a young age. You're always learning new things about behavioural patterns and about the different characters you meet. The difference is that in a marriage there are only two people who have to settle their differences...We've been working on this record for twenty months, which is a normal period of time. For Sigur Rós at least...You never know what will happen. This is our baby. It's exciting. Very exciting."

Georg Hólm:    "It comes as a surprise. It's as if we're constantly starting over. When we were making Ágætis Byrjun that's how it felt. The brackets album was more of an extension. It was a tough period. Now we're fresh again and it feels like we're starting anew. We took a vacation before we started this album and when we came together again it felt like we were all about to burst. Like we had been storing up creativity which was trapped inside us. It was a very pleasant feeling...We play in response to our surroundings. When we begin playing and writing we exaggerate the atmosphere around us. The songs exaggerate our feelings. We never decide on a fixed goal. We don't sit down and play a riff we wrote at home last night...We all agree to have no direction. It's just the four of us playing around, not discussing things we are doing...For us, music is the magic that happens in a moment. If you start dissecting it then you might spoil it. Sometimes you can discover new facets in music by talking in a superficial way about it but as soon as you try to get any deeper than that, you're in trouble. After all, things that are dissected usually need to be dead first."

Jón Þór Birgisson:    "It's been a long process. We've been doing it for two years and toured in between. I'm terribly excited now that it's being released. It will be fun to see how people react to it...Takk is probably richer than the other albums. We're always learning. When we made Von we had to learn how to use the recording equipment because we wanted a certain sound and mood to come forth in the recordings. We also learned a lot from Ken Thomas while recording Ágætis Byrjun. He taught us that music is about a feeling and a mood rather than frequency and other bullshit. The brackets [( )]album was to a certain extent the most difficult. We had been playing the songs for so long and were tired of them when we went into the studio. It's hard to be creative when you're tired. We learned from this and have now gained a lot of important information which I think will benefit us in the future...We've been able to do [as we please] from the start. People often ask me what it's like being signed to a big label and I tell them it's exactly like being signed to a small label. We just get more space. We've been playing for twelve years and have proven ourselves as artists and don't need any supervision anymore. No one is monitoring us. We do everything ourselves: arrange, record, mix, master. We even make the videos ourselves. The label knows they don't have to worry about us so they just don't bother. They help us instead...We are feeling the pressure now though. In addition to all the music we're doing the album cover ourselves and handling the first video through internet correspondence. We handled the prep work and now it's being processed. We've never let go of creative control and let others do things for us. I guess it would be healthy for us to just trust other people. Somtimes the work we put into the band is more of a lifestyle. It's so much fun to be the four of us in a band, playing at concerts and stuff, but there are so many practical things that make it difficult. A lot of energy goes into these practical things. It's laboursome but in the end it pays off to have a grasp the bigger picture...It was fun writing lyrics this time. It's always been quite a challenge for us to express ourselves through words. Somehow music flows more easily. When it comes to words we freeze up. We listened to the songs together and let the music trigger words in us. I think we learned something from this experience. The lyrics are very simple and naive. Moments and small adventures. Nothing too deep...People tend to overinterpret and find meaning in something which isn't remarkable to begin with. It's funny."


'Takk...' reached number thirty in France, twenty-seven in Germany and the US, nineteen in Australia, sixteen in Denmark and the UK, twelve in Sweden, eight in Finland, six in Ireland, four in Italy and Norway, and number one in Iceland.  







http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/






'Takk...'
full album:



1. Takk... "Thanks..." 00:00
2. Glósóli "Glowing Sole" 1:57
3. Hoppípolla "Hopping into Puddles" 8:12
4. Með blóðnasir "I Have a Nosebleed" 12:40
5. Sé lest "I See a Train" 14:57
6. Sæglópur "Lost at Sea" 23:37
7. Mílanó "Milan" 31:16
8. Gong "Gong" 41:41
9. Andvari "Zephyr" 47:14
10. Svo hljótt"So Quietly" 53:54
11. Heysátan "The Haystack" 1:01:18





Sigur Rós Live in Reykjavík 2005 (Full Set)


Setlist:

0:00 Takk...
2:20 Glósóli
8:47 Ný batterí
19:10 Sæglópur
26:36 Untitled #4 (a.k.a Njósnavélin/The nothing song)
34:55 Gong
40:00 Andvari
46:30 Hoppípolla
51:20 Með blóðnasir
54:10 Sé lest
1:02:55 Olsen Olsen
1:11:25 Viðrar vel til loftárása
1:22:10 Svo hljótt
1:28:50 Heysátan

1:35:50 Hafsól
1:44:40 Untitled #9 (a.k.a. Smáskífa)
1:53:44 Untitled #8 (a.k.a. Popplagið/The pop song)

ágætis byrjun

Sigur Rós slowly and softly embraced the world with the glacial cinematic soundscapes of this ecstatic orchestral escalation.  The group had formed in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1994 with Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson on guitar and vocals, Georg Hólm on bass, and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson on drums.  Although the band's name translates roughly to  "Victory Rose"; it was actually inspired by  Jónsi's newborn sister Sigurrós.  They were signed to the Sugarcubes' Bad Taste label and released 'Von' (translated "hope") in 1997 and then 'Von Brigði' ("variations on Von") in 1998.  That same year the band welcomed Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards.  

'Ágætis Byrjun' ("a good beginning") was recorded with producer Ken Thomas during the summer of 1998 and spring of 1999.  The sound of the band had developed into a neo-classical swoon with the addition of Sveinsson and the adoption by Jónsi of using a cello bow on his guitar.  The strings in 'Starálfur' are palindromic; they are the same forwards and backwards and the album's 'Intro' is a chapter from the title track, 'Ágætis byrjun', reversed. 'Avalon' is a chapter from 'Starálfur', slowed down.

'Ágætis Byrjun' climbed to the top of the Icelandic album chart and was praised by critics around the world.  It finally saw release in the UK in 2000 and in the US in 2001 on Fat Cat Records.  The album charted at sixty-five in France, fifty-two in the UK, thirty-eight in Ireland, seventeen in Norway, and number one in Iceland.  

Sveinsson considers:   "If it's a question about space, it is my question.  In Iceland there's plenty of open space and the sky is very big and you can drive only minutes out of Reykjavik and be surrounded by lava and black deserts - it is very creative. It's rough and violent, and I think the environment definitely influences us in an unconscious way."

Hólm says:  "It's different with books, for example, because writers are very good at explaining, but musicians deal with music, so we can't explain, except through our music.  So, you must listen to the music and then you will find out everything. Our album is like a little book and it should be listened to as a whole...Maybe as individuals we aren't that special, but our music is definitely special. Music has to sound real and it has to be sincere. It has to come from you, not from some idea you might have of what sounds cool. Its something you hear inside your head and you want to make the music sound like that because it describes your feelings."

Birgisson reveals:   "The first year of Sigur Rós, we were playing kind of slow, grand rock, or something — yeah, maybe more rock than, like, some ambient stuff. After that we slowly found our groove...When you're in Iceland, you're just so isolated. At that time, we didn't have Internet or anything like that. We didn't travel that much outside of Iceland. So there were never any dreams of becoming famous. That kind of stuff just happens. But it was a really good time to grow up and play in a band. The only thing you did was just play with your friends and have fun. If you do that and are honest, then probably good things come to you ... When I am writing music, it is magical...I don't know why I write songs, I don't know where it comes from and I don't know why we four are really good at doing it. It happens unconsciously, but reporters want to know why I sing like this, why do I use a bow on my guitar...I really don't know. and I can't make something up about it, I can only speak the truth. How can I make someone understand things that I don't understand myself?...It is all unconscious.  Everything that Sigur Rós does has to flow; it is like good karma - if you do honest things, then everything is as it should be."







http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/








"Svefn-g-englar"   "Sleep(walk)ing Angels"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xow2gnVTUjs





"Viðrar vel til loftárása"   "Good Weather for an Airstrike"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akYuy2FMQk4





"Olson Olson"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LeQN249Jqw





"Ágætis byrjun"   "A Good Beginning"








'Ágætis Byrjun'
full album:







1. Intro (0:00 - 1:37)
2. Svefn-g-englar (1:37 - 11:41)
3. Starálfur (11:41 - 18:27)
4. Flugufrelsarinn (18:27 - 26:16)
5. Ný batterí (26:16 - 34:26)
6. Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm) (34:26 - 41:36)
7. Viðrar vel til loftárása (41:36 - 51:54)
8. Olsen Olsen (51:54 - 59:57)
9. Ágætis byrjun (59:57 - 1:07:53)
10. Avalon (1:07:53 - 1:11:57)

1. "Intro"     1:36
2. "Svefn-g-englar"   "Sleep(walk)ing Angels" 10:04
3. "Starálfur"   "Staring Elf" 6:46
4. "Flugufrelsarinn"   "The Fly's Savior" 7:48
5. "Ný batterí"   "New Batteries" 8:06
6. "Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm)"   "The Heart Pounds (boom boom boom)" 7:08
7. "Viðrar vel til loftárása"   "Good Weather for an Airstrike" 10:13
8. "Olsen Olsen"     8:03
9. "Ágætis byrjun"   "A Good Beginning" 7:39
10. "Avalon"     4:01