Sigur Rós’s third album, and for many the most quintessentially “Sigur Rós” record, celebrates its 20th anniversary on October 28, 2022. The album has been remastered by legendary mastering engineer Ted Jenson at Sterling Sound, who also mastered every Sigur Rós album from Takk onwards.
Kveikur (pronounced [ˈkveikʏr], fuse or candlewick) is the seventh studio album from Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. It was released 12 June 2013 in Japan, on 17 June internationally, and on 18 June in the United States through XL Recordings. It is the first album to be fully released through XL after the band departed EMI and Parlophone during the label's acquisition by Universal Music Group in 2012. It is the first album since their debut, Von, not to feature Kjartan Sveinsson, following his departure in 2012, and the last to feature drummer Orri Páll Dýrason before his departure in 2018. The cover is a photo by the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. Kveikur sees a new direction taken by Sigur Rós, both musically and thematically. The band has described the album's sound as "more aggressive" than any of their previous works. All tracks are sung in Icelandic, although Yfirborð contains some reversed words at the start, which can be considered Hopelandic.
Following it’s surprise digital release, Sigur Rós’ first new studio album in ten years, ÁTTA, is their most intimate and emotionally direct record to date.
The album 'Odin’s Raven Magic' is an orchestral collaboration between Sigur Rós, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Steindór Andersen and Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir which premiered 18 years ago at the Barbican Centre in London and is now finally almost two decades later being released. The performance honours the poem, dramatic and beautiful, classical and contemporary. A stone marimba was built especially for the performance by Páll Guðmundsson.
Music from the band’s career, which was then twisted, bent and broken, and finally added to in the band’s Reykjavík studio to create a new perspective for the performance by by Cloud Gate Dance Company. In a statement posted on Sigur Rós’ website, the dance piece is described as a work that “excavates our deepest fear toward ourselves as human beings through bodies of dancers morphing into concrete symbols of anxieties, struggles, desires and loneliness in the lunatic, ever-changing world of high-end technology, and eventually leads us to a slim hope of love and inner serenity.”
A score of high Nordic drama from unreleased Sigur Rós material, as well as multitracks of chosen songs from the band’s catalogue. The music was premiered at Nordur og nidur festival, to soundtrack choreographed performances from the Iceland Dance Company.
on the longest day of summer 2016 sigur rós drove the whole way round iceland’s ring road, broadcasting the entire 1332km journey live on youtube. the soundtrack to this “slow tv” adventure was created using generative music software taking the multi-track stems of the sigur rós song ‘óveður’ and endlessly reinventing them to create new and unpredictable musical directions in real time. the very best moments from the 24 hour journey have now been pared down to a single album of great and reflective beauty. 8 tracks.