- 2023-06-21
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Sigur Rós Releases New Album “ÁTTA”
Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, consisting of Jón Þór Birgisson (vocals/guitar), Georg Hólm (bass) and Kjartan Sveinsson (synthesizers/keyboards), released their eighth studio album “ÁTTA” on June 16, 2023.
“ÁTTA” translates from Icelandic as eight. It is their first album in a decade since the 2013 album “Kveikur”.
Also, it is the first album to feature keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson, who rejoined the band in 2022.
The album comprises 10-track, produced by igur Rós and Paul Corley. The band recorded the album with a 32-piece orchestra.
Kjartan Sveinsson left the band in 2013, but he came to visit Jón Þór “Jónsi” Birgisson in Los Angeles before the COVID-19 hit and started writing together again in Jónsi's basement.
After that, the band recorded the album at Abbey Road Studios in London with the London Contemporary Orchestra, led by conductor Robert Ames.
Jón Þór Birgisson told NPR, “I think it was kind of like an accident. Kjartan, [the] keyboard player, that hadn't been in the band for 10 years, came to visit me in LA and we did like, did a kind of recording jam session in my basement. We had my guitar with a cello bow and effects, and he rented a Yamaha CP70, like an electric piano [with] strings and harps, and we basically started to play.”- He continued, “It was great. It's kind of amazing to play with old friends because it feels so natural somehow. You just play and feel like nothing has changed over the years and things come out and you start writing songs and melodies and I guess that was the beginning of the new album.”
He added, “We went to Abbey Road in London to record with the London Contemporary Orchestra with Rob Ames, who is a conductor there. Kjarri did the string arrangement and stuff like that. Yeah, he's amazing at that. It's always fun to go to Abbey Road to record. This is an iconic place. I went to Studio Two where the Beatles did all their stuff. So it's fun for guys from Iceland to go there. It's like, 'Whoa, cool.' For this album, we pre-recorded our parts and then bring them to the studio and then they play over that, basically.” -
Before the release of the album, the band released 10 minutes long music video for the lead single “Blóðberg” .
The video was directed by Johan Renck, who said of the video, “I feel as nihinistic as one could regarding the future. We are powerless against our own stupidities. Some aspects of this came to merge with my impressions of the themes of Blóðberg. The music becoming a score to my own miserable thoughts, giving them beauty as only music can.”
Photo by Tim Dunk
Background photo by Victor Frankowski - source : Apple Music
