Sigur Rós

Reykjavík's Sigur Rós first drew worldwide attention through their innovative cosmic post-rock explorations. They blend ambient electronics with orchestral and rock instrumentation alongside leader Jónsi's mournful falsetto, employing these elements in shifting proportions and gradual evolutions, and first appeared on the expansive Von in 1997. A sustained run of number-one albums in Iceland commenced with their 1999 breakthrough Ágætis Byrjun, while their international profile reached its height with the sixth album, Valtari, in 2012, which entered the Top Ten in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, and Italy and performed nearly as strongly elsewhere in Europe. They pursued a darker and more forceful approach on 2013's Kveikur, another substantial commercial success. The following decade yielded only occasional remix and soundtrack projects amid touring and separate endeavors. Sigur Rós later regrouped to record their eighth album, ÁTTA, issued in 2023, which moved away from Kveikur through its restrained drumming and expansive, emotionally resonant atmospheres.

The band, whose name means "Victory Rose" and derives from a sibling of one member, originated in early 1994 when teenagers guitarist-vocalist Jón Þór Birgisson (subsequently known as Jónsi), bassist Georg Hólm, and drummer Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson came together. Their initial recording secured a contract with Iceland's Bad Taste imprint. The sprawling debut Von ("Hope") arrived in 1997. Though sales stayed modest at first—under 400 copies during the opening year—it later attained platinum status. The 1998 remix collection Recycle Bin drew from that record.

Keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson came aboard before the strings-focused Ágætis Byrjun ("Good Start") of 1999. Its mounting reputation eventually propelled the album to the summit of the Icelandic chart. The single "Svefn-G-Englar" earned NME's Single of the Week designation in September 1999, igniting widespread coverage in Britain and, on a smaller scale, the United States. The "Ný Batterí" single followed in early 2000, the year Sigur Rós broke through internationally. Britain's independent Fat Cat began handling distribution, extending their audience past local listeners and dedicated writers. April performances in England alongside Godspeed You! Black Emperor culminated in a slot at the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, after which they supported several Radiohead dates across Europe before the year closed. During this period Gunnarsson departed and Orri Páll DýRason stepped in.

The first quarter of 2001 saw Sigur Rós off the road while constructing their own studio and preparing the third album. Meanwhile Ágætis Byrjun gained an American label and press coverage grew more extensive and diverse, with features appearing in Entertainment Weekly and The Wire. Touring resumed in April, encompassing further European dates, select U.S. shows, and several Japanese performances through the rest of the year. By late 2001 Ágætis Byrjun had captured the Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music and had been named Iceland's Best Album of the Century.

The third album, ( ), emerged in 2002. Most tracks were refined during live performances before being tracked at the band's Alafoss studio outside Reykjavík. For the first time the lyrics were delivered entirely in Jónsi's invented tongue Vonlenska, also called Hopelandic, yielding a comparatively unpolished sound that moderated the dramatic peaks and valleys of Ágætis Byrjun. The release restored the group to number one in Iceland and broadened their chart reach throughout Europe plus Australia and the U.S., where it peaked at numbers 49 and 51 respectively.

Three years afterward the band issued 2005's Takk..., which introduced tighter structures and sunnier timbres while reverting largely to Icelandic lyrics interspersed with occasional Hopelandic. Building on their rising stature, the album outperformed its predecessor, reaching the Top 30 of the Billboard 200 and number 16 in the U.K. In 2007 Sigur Rós unveiled the documentary Heima, which followed their Icelandic tour the prior year and included an intimate acoustic performance at a Borg coffeehouse.

Their fifth album, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust, arrived in 2008 and incorporated relatively direct pop songs alongside the customary expansive soundscapes. It garnered favorable notices and sustained the band's upward chart trajectory. After completing the supporting tour—whose final shows were filmed and released in 2011 as Inni—they attempted further studio work but abandoned the results and entered hiatus. Jónsi then pursued solo activity, first issuing Riceboy Sleeps in 2009 with boyfriend Alex Somers under the Jónsi & Alex banner, then releasing Go under his own name in 2010. His most prominent outside contribution was "Sticks and Stones" for the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack.

Sigur Rós ended the short break in April 2010 with a Coachella set. October 2011 brought their first live album, Inni, documenting the 2008 tour. They returned to a more atmospheric mode for the understated sixth studio album Valtari ("Steamroller"), released in May 2012. It became their fifth straight Icelandic chart-topper, led the Irish album chart, and achieved a career-best number seven in the U.S. Returning swiftly to the studio without Sveinsson, the band adopted a darker, more assertive stance on the seventh album, Kveikur, in 2013. Audiences worldwide embraced the shift, producing a Top 20 hit across Europe plus the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Subsequent touring continued alongside television appearances on The Simpsons and Game of Thrones.

In 2017 the group worked with Somers on two instrumental pieces for a season-four Black Mirror episode. Marking their Norður og Niður Festival in Iceland, they issued the soundtrack-film project Route One that same year along with the Jónsi and Somers EP All Animals. Both titles appeared on vinyl for Record Store Day and reached digital platforms in 2018.

A deluxe reissue of Ágætis Byrjun commemorated the album's twentieth anniversary in 2019, adding a 1999 concert from Íslenska Óperan plus a disc of demos and rarities. The following year brought the long-awaited recording of the orchestral Odin's Raven Magic, drawn from an Eddic poem of medieval Icelandic literature. Created with composer Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and chanter Steindór Andersen, the piece had debuted nearly twenty years earlier in 2002 and received few subsequent performances. Sveinsson rejoined in early 2022 in time for the band's first world tour in nearly five years and for work on the eighth album. Produced by the band with Paul Corley (Ben Frost, Oneohtrix Point Never), ÁTTA ("Eight") appeared in June 2023, a decade after Kveikur. It offered a marked contrast through its soaring, London Contemporary Orchestra-accompanied ambiance and overall warmth.