Sigur Ros
by Kathleen Dwyer
Issue 3, Winter/Spring 2004
Emotions are the most important things to someone when it comes to music. The lyrics, the instruments, the messages; they are essential in what we choose to listen to and favor. Music keeps us company, music relates to us, and ultimately it elaborates the feelings in our hearts when we are unable to find the right words. For whatever reason anyone has to listen or even create music, it is the rawest of human emotions. For the band Sigur Ros, its emotion is nothing but a shapeless thought left only for you to decide. Their music, being the most hauntingly beautiful sound to ever be created, is one that simply highlights purely what music is all about and what the core meaning of it is.
Sigur Ros (meaning "Victory Rose") is a band that consists of four members: Jon zor "Jonsi" Birgisson (the lead vocalist and guitarist), Kjartan "Kjarri" Sveinsson (keyboards), Orri Pýll Dorason (drums), and Georg (Goggi) Holm (bass). Their home is the Nortic island of Iceland, which is the source of their delicately synthetic pieces of emotions; they also claim to bring to you in their music the beautiful landscapes of Iceland (believe me, the music of Sigur Ros has definitely influenced me into loving Iceland). The main trademark of this extremely wonderful band also comes from Jonsi's guitar which he plays with a cello bow. The result is an echoing wave of indescribable noise that creates one of the most inhuman beauties on Earth; it goes well with his angelic voice.
Out of their four full length albums (Von, Von Brigxi, ýgFtis byrjun, and ( ) ), their groundbreaking "ýgFtis byrjun" has much of my praise and I suggestit with no regrets to you. Translated to "A Very Good Beginning", it was technically their first album (Von was very experimental and Von Brigxi was a remake of Von because of the band's disappointment in it) that took off from the ground with unique tracks all more better than the next. The album starts off with a huge chorus of Jonsi's haunting cello played guitar with "Svefn-g-englar", and then follows with songs like "Starýlfur" (gorgeously orchestrated) and "Flugufrelsarinn." However the wrenchingly emotional and sad song, "No Batter" is probably one of the best on the album. It's beautifully strange and story-like lyrics (which can be found on www.alwaysontherun.net along with the other songs) give the song a huge boost of melancholy glory if you know the lyrics. If not, Jonsi's very in depth voice can only tell the rest along side beautiful lingering trumpets and guitars.
I assure you with all my heart you will love and accept on the first hearing the other tracks on the CD. Songs like Vixrar Vel Til Loftýrýsa, which is a ten minute song of climatic beauty and clash of instruments uniting and "ýgFtis byrjun", which is a calm ending that clearly states that this is indeed a "good beginning". This band has made probably the biggest impact on my life with their extraordinary minds and look on music, life, and the world. May I also add, they are the greatest live.
Sigur Ros' last album, ( ), was composed with their own trademark beauty but with one catch: they didn't speak in any confirmed language and only their own made up language cleverly called "Hopelandic." It's a language of love, hope and music and Sigur Ros successfully proves that you do not need words to feel the flow of music's beauty and only the right instruments to hit the right chords in your heart. Alongside that, it's as if the band is sending out messages of peace through an untranslatable language. This is the genius of Sigur Ros...the meaning of their own music is up to you for interpreting. Who knows what you could possibly think while listening to the wailing echoes of a cello-played guitar and a voice second to a god?