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Sigur Rós

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Sigur Rós

Sigur Rós (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈsɪːɣʏrous] ) is an Icelandic post-rock band that formed in 1994 in Reykjavík. It comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals, and their use of bowed guitar, Sigur Rós incorporate classical and minimal aesthetic elements. Jónsi's vocals are sung in Icelandic and non-linguistic vocalisations the band terms Vonlenska. They have released eight studio albums, and attracted critical and commercial attention with their second album Ágætis byrjun.

Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed Sigur Rós in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name, which means "Victory Rose", is taken from the name of Jónsi's younger sister, Sigurrós, born a few days before the band was formed.

Sigur Rós signed a record deal with the Icelandic Sugarcubes-owned record label Bad Taste, because they thought the falsetto vocals would appeal to teenage girls. In 1997, they released Von and in 1998 a remix collection, Von brigði. The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work.

International acclaim came with 1999's Ágætis byrjun. The album's reputation spread by word of mouth over the following two years. Soon critics worldwide were praising it effusively, and the band drew praise from high-profile acts such as Radiohead, Coldplay and David Bowie.

Three songs, "Ágætis byrjun", "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take, from a 2000 concert in Denmark, of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (later 'unnamed' "Untitled #4") appeared in the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky. The former two also subsequently appeared in the US version of the television series Queer as Folk. Their music has also appeared in the TV series 24 with "Ný batterí", and CSI with "Svefn-g-englar". In 2004, Wes Anderson used "Starálfur" in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou as did the Emmy-winning 2005 TV film The Girl in the Café. In Enki Bilal's Immortel (Ad Vitam) the song "Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm)" is used. The song "Svefn-g-englar" was also used on V on 24 November 2009, and features prominently in Café de Flore released in 2011.

After the release of Ágætis byrjun, the band became known for Jónsi's signature style of reverb accentuated guitar work using a cello's bow.

In 2001, Sigur Rós christened their newly completed studio by recording an EP titled Rímur with an Icelandic fisherman named Steindór Andersen. The EP contains six songs, all of which feature Steindór Andersen reciting traditional Icelandic rímur poetry. Sigur Rós accompany him on three songs. Two songs feature Steindór alone. The last song on the EP, "Lækurinn", is a duet with Sigurður Sigurðarson. A thousand copies of the EP were printed and sold during the spring tour of 2001. The EP was sold in a blank-white-paper case. In 2001 the band toured in Canada, performing at Massey Hall in Toronto in September.

Drummer Ágúst left the band after the recording of Ágætis byrjun and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason. In 2002, their highly anticipated follow-up album ( ) was released. Upon release all tracks on the album were untitled, though the band later published song names on their website. All of the lyrics on ( ) are sung in Vonlenska, also known as Hopelandic, a language without semantic meaning, which resembles the phonology of the Icelandic language. It has also been said that the listener is supposed to interpret their own meanings of the lyrics which can then be written in the blank pages in the album booklet.

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