Track Listing

1. Ba Ba
2. Ti Ki
3. Di Do

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115768 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Single, CD+DVD, Enhanced, Maxi, Import

Album Description
With perhaps typical Icelandic perversity, Sigur Ros's Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do is perhaps the most esoteric release of their pretty wilful career. Written for octogenarian US choreographer Merce Cunningham's Dance Company's 50th gala performance, Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do is more than 20 minuites of new instrumental music based around music-box piano lines, percussive sounds derived from ballet shoes and the fractured syllables and tap dancing feet of Merce Cunningham himself. The whole sounds something akin to The Exorcist score married to Byrne/Eno's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts".

First performed alongside Radiohead's similarly commissioned piece at Brooklyn Academy of Music last October, Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do forms part of the Cunningham Dance Company's Split Sides programme, wherein the elements of choreography, music, set design, costume and lighting are chosen randomly on the night by the throw of the dice. Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do contains three separate tracks, respectively 'Ba Ba', 'Ti Ki' and, yes, 'Di Do'. In the spirit of the commission, these were initially written to be played in any order, but, having lived with them, the band like it best when they occur in the sequence presented here.

The artwork incorporates elements of Robert Heishman's set design for Split Sides, as well as Merce's stick-figure notations for choreography. It comes as a special digi-pack CD and one-sided 12-inch that also features an etching from Merce Cunningham on the reverse side.

Customer Reviews

Refreshingly Different
For Sigur Rós, this is rather different. You're probably getting sick of hearing that now, but it's true. Aside from the last track, in which there are excerpts of words, this is an instrumental CD. But it is in a completely different style to the intrumental tracks on (); as other reviewers have said, it seems almost experimental.
I have reviewed each of the tracks seperately below for people that have the time to get a better feel for the CD. Of course, the best way to get a feel for it would be to borrow it off someone else and listen to it first, to see if it's your cup of tea.

Ba Ba 5/5
This track begins beautifully. A few tinkles of bells or chimes of some sort, along with sounds of rustling or breezing air. A repeated melody fades in until about 2:00, when a keyboard plays chords and notes. This continues in a loop for a while before going off into a short piano melody accompanied by squeaks and synth. The track then quietens, before the piano chords bring the song back piece by piece.
This induces the image of a winterscape in my mind. The noises at the start make me think of water dripping from melting icicles. It really is a beautiful song.

Ti Ki 4/5
While I feel this is the 'weakest' song on the CD, it is still fantastic. It carries on from the end of Ba Ba with out-of-time chimes and bells, with quiet thumps and rustling in the background. This continues up until around 2:00 again, at which point the rustling becomes louder and consistent, and the beeps become elongated and sharper. Then the rhythmic beeping fades in. The first time I heard this, I cringed; it sounds so harsh compared to the rest of the sounds, and seems to break up the song. However, after about a minute of this, an amazing keyboard melody comes in which drowns out the beeping. This only lasts for 15 seconds or so, but is then continued shortly after. The song continues like this, with the keyboard melodies coming in every now and then, over the top of the consistent beeping, chiming and rustling in the background. It really is an eerie song, but simply incredible.
The repeated beeps of noise puts images and thoughts in my mind of trying to wake up with the alarm clock going off, but rolling over and ignoring it, plunging yourself into the dream world once more.

Di Do 5/5
Out of all three tracks on this album, I'd say this one is the least 'Sigur Rós-like'. It begins with a rumbling sound, a sound similar to a fly's wings and the sound of rushing air which slowly gets louder and louder. Then the dis-jointed excerpts of the CD's title come in. At first it just sounds completely random, and disorganised. But then around 2:30 it all slots together and a background beat, chord sequence and melody comes in which serves to intensify the atmosphere. It continues for about a minute at which point some really 'horrible' sounds come in, sort of like static, nails being drawn down a blackboard kind of sound. This continues and fades to the end.
This song induces images of a space mission launch. The rushing noise of air and rumbling being the launch sequence, and then the slow fading of those noises and the inclusion of the background melody, beat and chords symbolising the exiting of Earth's atmosphere and the entry into space.

So overall, it is very different to Sigur Rós' other stuff (I have (), Takk, and have listened to a few songs off of Ágætis Byrjun). However, it works. Extremely well.
I'd like to thank the other reviewers of this CD, as their ratings were the inspiration behind purchasing this CD.

Very odd
was expecting something along the lines of ( ), but these songs are very minimalist, and sometimes there doesn't seem to be much going on. But they are very beautiful and very haunting.

Influenced by their friends
Sigur Rós are a band well known for their strange ways: strange songs and stranger videos. However, it is known to those who have bought Von Brigidi (Sigur Rós' remix of Von [like reanimation by Linkin Park])that Sigur Rós are friends with a band called Múm, who also come from Iceland. Múm are an electronica band, whose three albums so far are well known for their delightful melodies. It seems that Múm have influenced Sigur Rós and the result was this album. Songs that are long and haunting, full of electronic sounds and experiments, this is one album that you dont want to miss if you are a fan of Sigur Rós. Nothing like this has been done before the band, and whilst it follows their vein for strangeness, it shows they arent afraid to experiment. A brilliant album, well worth a buy.