Product Description

This stately Iceland rock outfit took the alternative-musicworld by storm with its second album, AGAETIS BYRJUN--a haunting, eloquent, 76-minute instant classic. Frontman Jon PorBirgisson sings in a language he calls "Hopelandic" (a combination of Icelandic and his own angelic calling), over the lyrical ebb and flow of feedback-drenched guitar, gushing keyboards, gently driving bass, and drums that crash like the surf of an alien ocean. After a droning beginning, the curtains suddenly part with "Svefn-G-Englar", revealing a sound as wide open and exhilarating as Iceland's landscape. Later, the mournful violin and slowly cascading beats of "Flugufrelsarinn" give way to ghostly horn sections, orchestral crescendos, stretches of silence, crashing dissonance, sad piano lines, and a Radiohead-esque dip into the realm of rock on "Olsen Olsen". The breathtaking scope and emotional richness of this outing turned Sigur Ros into an overnight success. Within a year of AGAETIS BYRJUN's release on the small Britishlabel Fatcat Records, the band went from obscurity to selling out major venues, scoring films, and signing with MCA, who re-released the album to even wider acclaim.

Track Listing

1. Intro
2. Svefn-g-englar
3. Staralfur
4. Flugufrelsarinn
5. Ny Batteri
6. Hjartao Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm)
7. Viorar Vel Til Loftarasa
8. Olsen Olsen
9. Agaetis Byrjun
10. Avalon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #429 in Music
• Released on: 2000-08-14
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Reykjavík-based noise quartet Sigur Ros are the biggest band in their native Iceland, which should say much, much more about the collective insanity of that earthquake-ridden, blizzard-beaten crag of an island than anything to do with Sigur Ros' sound. But in their music, Sigur Ros reflect all the breathtaking glory of the Icelandic wastes--a fairy-tale explosion of unhinged elemental majesty that's finally crystalised here, their debut European release. Poised somewhere between the haunting soundscapes of Labradford and the lilting Celtic falsetto of Enya, Agaetis Byrjun is a truly breathtaking listen. Frontman Jon Por Birgisson sings in a language that Sigur Ros dub Hopelandic--an otherworldly mutation of Icelandic, sung in the falsetto cadence of angels; similarly, he plays his guitar with a violin bow, opening the floodgates for brilliant waves of feedback. And while it's the opening "Svefn-G-Englar" that's Sigur Ros' defining moment to date, there's far more that Agaetis Byrjun has to offer; the pomp and flourish of a full orchestra on "Flugufrelsarinn", or the awe-inspiring near-religious mantra of "Ny Batteri". --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

The most breathtaking piece of music you'll ever hear!
Agaetis Byrjun is most possibly the most amazing album I have ever heard. Every track makes you tingle with emotion, and the purity and beauty of the wall of noise created will blow you away.
This album is the perfect mix of raw, violin- bow enhanced guitar, mind blowing vocals and a plethora of crazed, beautiful sounds. Culminating in a perfect state of blissful energy.

If your a fan of the more experimental radiohead or simply a person who enjoys beautiful music you should not be without this album. Listen to Svefn-G-Englar (track 2) and let your mind drift away into a blissful state of pure ecstasy.

MUSIC OF THE STARS.
I heard this music when I was sitting in a coffee shop on a cold,rainy afternoon and suddenly beautiful sounds seem to come out of the walls all around me. I sat there, entranced and finally asked what it was and the owner brought me the cover of Agaetis Byrjun.
I hadn't even heard of Sigur Ros, although I'd heard people talk about the beauty of Icelandic music.

So I bought the CD from amazon.

What an absolute joy! To me, the title track is the best, but they're all so beautiful and no matter how tired you may feel at the end of the day, you put this on, and sit and listen and there comes this ambience of beauty. It's crystals and ice and harmony and all the things that make life good.

Buy it - you need it!

Stop reading and buy this album
Sigur Ros are a 4 piece outfit from Iceland, whose second studio album is quite simply the most jaw dropping, heart stopping piece of music that these ears have heard in ages and ages. If not ever. The sound of their music defies my desire to afford it suitable description. One review of this album that I read on the Net described it as 'the soundtrack to a Heavenly afterlife'. I will offer little that is more fitting than that.

However, reviews require comparisons and I would be failing you if I didn't provide one - however inadequate.

Imagine the sound of Air's 'Moon Safari'. Add the sound of Radiohead at their evocative, powerful best. Mix in the sort of piano and string work that would make you weep for joy if you heard it at Café Mambo. Then roast in the oven for 40 minutes at gas mark Melody. Double it and you have the defining album of this, or possibly any, summer.

10 tracks. One second short of 72 minutes. Chilled to the bone rhythms meet haunting instrumentation and ethereal 'Hopelandish' vocals to produce sheer emotion distilled into crescendo after slowly building crescendo. Pick a fine summer's evening, light a barbie, get some mates round; eat, drink and then watch them all fall apart as your new Sigur Ros cd melts even the hardest of their hearts.

If only one of you buys this album and, in short time, comes to agree with me then the mission that I currently feel I am on will have been satisfied.

"Agaetis Byrjun" apparently translates roughly as "A new beginning". Buy it. Treasure it.