| Description: | sigur rós consists of jón þor (jónsi) birgisson (vocals, guitars), kjartan (kjarri) sveinsson (keyboards), orri páll dýrason (drums) and georg (goggi) holm (bass). the band were formed by jónsi, georg and original drummer ágúst in 1994. they were later joined by kjartan and when ægúst left the band after the recording of ágætis byrjun in order to pursue a career in graphic design, he was replaced by orri. sigur rós hail from iceland, and rightly claim to bring you the beautiful landscape of their homeland with their music. it's impossible to fully justify it with words, so the best advice would be to check out the media page and listen to some tracks from their astonishing back catalogue. sigur ros have released four albums so far, plus one remix album (von brigði - recycle bin). the first album, recently given a worldwide release for the first time, is called von (hope). frequently unrecognisable from the bulk of their subsequent work, von is an experimental and ambient work, which many believe to be a concept album (something the band deny, however). The band really found their feet with their second album, the masterpiece that is ágætis byrjun (a good beginning). the album was originally released only in iceland, but was discovered by brighton's fatcat records, who snapped the band up and released the album in the uk in august 2000. the band attracted a huge critical acclaim throughout the world in the second half of 2000, particularly in america. this resulted in a frantic hunt by major us labels to secure the rights to their material in the states. large quantities of cash were offered, although in the end the band chose the deal which gave them most artistic freedom. this was with mca records. the band toured north america for the first time in april and may 2001, and the vast majority of the dates sold out straight away. |