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Sigur Ros Biography


Although Sigur Ros is a more recent band that became popular in the late 90’s their sound has blown away millions of people. They have a unique sound that anyone can listen to. From kids to teens to adults, they impress people of all ages. The band is known as post-rock band. They are known for their lead singers falsetto voice wich her uses the majority of the time. This adds to the sound of their music. The band combined their homeland language of Icelandic with their own language to come up with Hopelandic. This also adds to the uniqueness of Sigur Ros. The band started in their teenage year’s as a trio including guitarist and vocalist Jon Thor Birgisson, bassist Georg Holm, and drummer Agust Gunnarsson. They were three very talented young men who when tied together came up with the beginning of what Sigur Ros is proud to call their sound. They released their first album in 1997 names Von. (Hope) Kjartan Sveinsson joined the band as a keyboardest and was a major part of their heavily string based album Agaetis Byrjun. (An Alright Start)




The album Agaetis Byrjun
(An Alright Start) released in 1999 made them very popular in their homeland and earned them platinum status in sales. The drummer Agust Gunnarsson departed after this album, but was very quickly replaced by drummer Orri Pall DyRason. Their song consisted of a huge hit Svefn-G-Englar. This album spread by word of mouth over the next two years. Many of the songs from this album can be found in Tv series such as 24, CSI, CSI Miami. Some songs from this album have also appeared in awad winning movies such as; Immortal, Mysterious Skin, or The Girl in The Café. I personally think that this album is amazing , but not my favorite album. This brought Sigur |Ros into the light and hlped them on their way to the famous band that they are.

The EP Rimur was released in 2001. The six songs on this EP were a way of chritianing their new studio that they had built for them. This was a very personal album that only had 1000 copies given out in 2001 in a blank paper case. The entire album featured a true Icelandic fisherman Steindor Andersen. The album is mainly poetry. Icelandic poetry is called rimur, hence the name. Not many people know about this album , but it is very interesting. The only way to get these songs are to download them. And finding them is extremely difficult.

In 2003 they were working with radiohead to compose some music for Merce Cunningham’s dance piece “Split Ends.” They ended up putting the music onto an album naming it “Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do.” Radiohead’s contirubution was never published.




In 2005 they released the album Takk. Takk is my personal favorite album seeing that I like almost every song on it. It has two of my favorite songs Hoppopolla, and Glosoli which were two of their biggest hits. Hoppipolla has appeared in many movies, shows, and BBC world news. It has been in recent movies such as Children of Men and Slumdog Millionaire. This album brought the band Sigur Ros to worldwide fame. They are well known in the United States and here in Canada.

In 2006 Sigur Ros finished a huge worldwide tour with multiple stops in Europe and the US. They played a headlien show at the Hollywood Bowl, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. When the band returned from this tour they played a series of free outdoor shows in their homeland for two months. During these shows there was film taken which then turned into a DVD named Heima.

In August 2007, a limited DVD+CD edition of the 2002 soundtrack to the documentary Hlemmur was released. The DVD Heima was released prior to this which was a live documentary of their icland outdoor tour and a look into some of their unreleased songs. It is a great DVD and I would suggest taking a look at it.




Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust which translates to “With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly” was their fifth studio recorded album which was released on June 23, 2008. This album is said to be stylistically different with fewer strings and more guitar. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it just widens the audience even more. The last track on the album titled “All Alright” is the first English song ever released by Sigur Ros. The band have been announced as a headlining act for the 2008 Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, Latitude Festival 2008 and the 2008 La Route du Rock Festival in St Malo, France. In addition, the band performed a late-night set at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where they blew a speaker at the end of their second song. In the Fall of 2008 they started their Autumn tour that ended in September in their homeland.

Individual Members


Jon Thor Birgisson - He is known for his Flasetto voice, his use of a cello bow on his guitar, and his openly being gay. He is also blind in one eye and a vegetarian. His significant other Alex Somers and Himself collaborate on their own side project that they do for fun with ambient music. Alex Somers is responsible for most of the graphic design of Sigur Ros. Prior to Sigur Ros he was lead for a band called the “Bee Spiders.” They could be compared to the Smashing Pumpkins. Prior to this band he also fronted another band called “Stoned.”










Georg Holm - He is the most fluent in English and is the cofounder of the band Sigur Ros. One of the songs is named after his step daughter and is a quite amazing bassist. He has been with the band since the beginning and is contempt to be until the end.











Kjartan Sviensson - He was not a part of Sigur Ros in the beginning, but was easily accepted into the group as a keyboardist. He plays many instruments such as; the oboe, tin whistle, flute. He also plays the guitar. He is a composer and has composed many of the string arrangments for Sigur Ros. He is an amazing musician and a very important addition to Sigur Ro.

Orri Pall DyRason - Replaced the drummer Agust Gunnarsson after he left the band. He has done 5 amazing albums with Sigur Ros and loves being a part of everything. He also named the song Vaka after his daughter. He is an exceptional drummer and was easily accepted into the band.