new amiina single

long time sigur rós collaborators, amiina, have released their second single. it has three tracks: “seoul”, “ugla” and “ammaelis” and can be purchased here right now. stocks are limited. (note that this is the european version of the single, with an american/canadian version on sale now through the workers institute label.)

iceland tour photos

we’ve compiled the photos we received from the iceland summer tour onto this page. the pictures are quite nice as the venue locations were a bit unusual: a field outside a farmer’s house (háls í öxnadal), surrounded by fog in front of a church (seyðisfjörður), inside a huge canyon formed by a glacial flooding (ásbyrgi), etc. all the concerts were filmed and will be released on an upcoming dvd featuring footage from the concerts as well as of the icelandic countryside and people. a live cd is also being planned, with some of the band’s rare songs expected to be included (e.g. lagið í gær, gítardjamm, von revamped). we’ll let you know as soon as we have confirmed release dates for these.

sigur rós covers and remixes

over the years we’ve come across some alternate versions of sigur rós songs circulating on the web, ranging from a capella arrangements to dance remixes. we thought we’d share some of the ones we found interesting/amusing by making them available for download below. oh and if you have a sigur rós cover or remix of your own which you’d like to share with us you can send it to us via email (mp3s not exceeding 10mb).

• untitled #1 acoustic version by manuok
• untitled #1 a capella version by vocal infusion
• untitled #1 eurodance version by torgeir
• hoppípolla acoustic version by we are scientists
• flugufrelsarinn country version by fálkarnir
• starálfur acoustic version by special moth
• svefn-g-englar dance version by innerstate
• debata mandire electronic version by biomechanoid
• untitled #7 country version by the lonesome traveller

sigur rós in swaziland

sigur rós will be visiting swaziland at the end of the month as part of a unicef iceland campaign to raise awareness of the nation’s HIV infection rate, which is the highest in the world. the band will meet some of the kids who are worst off and play some music for them. says orri: “we’ll be there for one week to see the situation for ourselves. the rate of HIV infection in swaziland is so high that a lot children have lost their parents. our role will be to spend time with the kids and help them with their daily chores. in some cases the head of the family is nine or ten years old and we will to try to help these families get through the day.” the band’s visit will be filmed as part of a fund raising programme to be broadcast on iceland’s channel 2 on world AIDS day, december 1st.

amiina update / tour

next month amiina will do a short european tour. the dates are as follows:
october 16th: point ephemere, paris (tickets),
october 17th: botanique, brussels (tickets),
october 18th: arts theatre, london (tickets),
october 20th: la casa encendida, madrid (tickets).

also, amiina will release a single, “seoul”, from their forthcoming album during october - exact date to be confirmed. details of their album will also follow at a later date.

split sides in miami

sigur rós will be heading to florida next year to perform ‘ba ba ti ki di do’ for merce cunningham’s ’split sides’. it will take place at the ziff ballet opera house in miami on february 25th as part of the carnival center for the performing arts’ citywide festival, ‘merce in miami’. for more details please see their website for further details.

tour diary continues

just a reminder to fans that they should really check out the tour diary from the recently completed icelandic tour. the bands manager is sending us these updates along with some pictures aswell.

tour diary updates

over the next few days our tour diary will feature some thoughts by the band’s manager, john best, about the bands recent icelandic tour and some “behind the scenes” photos will be posted as well. we will also be adding impressions of the concerts by a few of us here at sigur-ros.co.uk who were there too.

marching band joins sigur rós

last night sigur rós were accompanied by the local marching band during their concert in west fjords town ísafjörður. photos from this concert can be found on the website of the west fjords newspaper bæjarins besta. sigur rós will continue their tour around iceland with another free concert tomorrow in háls in öxnadalur valley, beginning at 10pm.

austrian screenings (update)

update: due to technical issues, all three austrian screenings will now not go ahead. apologies to all austrian fans.

we’re pleased to announce details of three further screenings of the forthcoming reykjavík show, which will all take place in austria. the three venues are as follows; moviemento, dametzstreet 30, 4020 linz; schubert kino, mehlplatz 2, a-8010 graz and wirr, burggasse 70, 1070 vienna. tickets are available directly from the cinemas for linz and graz, whilst you can order via email for vienna and pick the tickets up on the night. ticket cost five euros for vienna and seven euros for linz and graz.

nft screening details

as previously reported, the reykjavík show is to be screened live at the national film theatre in london. we are pleased to announce that, prior to the amiina and sigur rós sets, several sigur rós videos will be shown, including ‘the last farm’ (a short film that kjartan produced the score for). doors open at 20.30 with sigur rós due to take to the stage in iceland at 22.30 uk time. the phone number for the bfi box office is 020 7928 3232. we also hope to have details of further screenings in other places soon.

surprise concert in ólafsvík

tonight at 8pm sigur rós will be playing at the klif community hall in ólafsvík, a town of 900 people situated next to snæfellsjökull glacier. the band has kept this concert secret until today to ensure that the locals will be able to fit into the small venue. it is rumoured that sigur rós will play some rare tunes during this iceland tour but worry not; all of the concerts will be filmed to be included in a future sigur rós dvd release, intended to capture the people and nature of iceland.

reykjavík concert info

because no tickets are sold to the free july 30th reykjavík concert in miklatún park, we would like to announce the showtimes here: amiina will start the show at 8:45pm and sigur rós will enter the stage at 10:00pm. parking spots at kringlan, perlan, austurbæjarskóli and iðnskólinn will be open for concert guests (5 min walk to the park). the concert will be broadcast live to the national film theatre in london, as well as to the icelandic tv station sjónvarpið where you will be able to listen/watch through a live stream. finally, for the foreigners travelling to iceland for the show, we’d like to point out the iceland travel thread on the message board, where travel advice can be exchanged.

outdoor concert in öxnadalur

we can now announce that on friday july 28th at 10pm, sigur rós will hold a free outdoor concert in a field near háls in öxnadalur valley in north iceland (about 30 minutes west of akureyri). this concert, as well as the outdoor concert in reykjavík, is open for so all sigur rós encourage families and the elderly in particular to drop by and enjoy a cozy evening with them under the midnight sun.

iceland tour confirmed

we are pleased to announce that in addition to the free outdoor reykjavík concert on july 30th, the band will go on a long-awaited iceland tour, beginning in a couple of weeks. they will be playing eight small dates across the icelandic countryside at the end of july and beginning of august, all of which will be free of admission. these are very low key dates and we will not be listing them on the site, although those attending the reykjavík show may find a few clues as to their whereabouts. all the iceland dates will be being recorded and filmed for a future dvd release.

sæglópur ep delay in usa

although sæglópur will be available to purchase from itunes from july 11th, the actual release will not be in stores in america until august 8th, due to a delay with the artwork.

reykjavík concert + screening

at the end of their year long world wide tour, sigur rós will perform a free outdoor concert in klambratún park (aka miklatún) in downtown reykjavík on the 30th of july. this concert will also be broadcast live via satellite to the national film theatre in london. tickets are now available for this screening at the website of the nft. further details of this icelandic date and possible further cinema broadcasting locations will come soon.

band kicks off summer tour

sigur rós began their summer tour in germany last week and will be performing live in 15 different european countries over the next 3 weeks, accompanied by a string and brass section. tomorrow night they will be playing a concert in the swedish venue of dalhalla, a particularly beautiful open air theatre located in a large crater created by a meteor.

sæglópur cd & dvd

the sæglópur ep will be released july 10th in most parts of the world on EMI records, and july 11th in north america on indie label the worker’s institute. it will be a double disc release: a cd containing the four tracks and a dvd containing the band’s videos to glósóli, hoppípolla and sæglópur. sæglópur is currently being used by the BBC for all trailers of its coverage of wimbledon 2006.

warm-up gig in mannheim

an additional “warm-up” concert has been added to the start of the summer tour. the gig will be on june 22nd at the alte feuerwache in mannheim germany and is going to be a smaller, more intimate event than usual. tickets are now available on altefeuerwache.com.

jónsi solo track on cd

the first released track by frakkur (jónsi’s solo alias) is now available on the icelandic compilation cd “kitchen motors family album”. other artists on the album include slowblow, amiina, mugison and apparat organ quartet. the album is available from the smekkleysa website.

rock video of the year

the video for glósóli won “best rock video” at the creative & design awards which took place last night at the hammersmith palais in london. the other nominees were arctic monkeys, franz ferdinand, oasis, kaiser chiefs and mew.

the glósóli video, which is the most watched video in EMI history, was based on an original idea from sigur rós and directed by fellow icelanders arni & kinski. it can be viewed in various formats on our video download page.

new icelandic band

fans of the toothfaeries artwork should keep an eye out for the new single by icelandic teen sensations jakobínarína. the cover of their eponymous debut single has been designed by jónsi and alex toothfaerie. check out the band’s myspace to keep tabs on iceland’s next big export.

amiina new york show

good news for new yorkers: amiina will be playing a set at the ‘bang on a can’ festival in new york this coming sunday, june 4th. more details about the festival can be found here.

hoppípolla chart position

hoppípolla was released on 7″ vinyl last week and is currently in 21st place on the uk chart. the limited edition numbered 7″ is selling fast so if you want to pick up a copy of this release, it would probably be advisable to do so this week.