The group Sigur Rós have released brand-new song ahead of their sold out Europe and North America tour, which begins on June 16 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, as part of Christine and the Queens’s Meltdown Tour.
The group’s latest song titled “Blóðberg”and is an orchestral piece that unfurls itself across seven minutes and potentially signposts the way to a promised new album, which will be Sigur Ros‘s first album in a decade.
Following the release of “Blóðberg” is a video that is directed by Johan Renck, who is the director of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl and music videos by Madonna, Robyn, and Beyoncé.
In the press release Renck shares his thoughts about the latest song and music video.
“I feel as nihilistic 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.”
“Blóðberg” is the first in a decade to feature multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson alongside frontman Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm. Also the tune” features the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames.
It is mixed and co-produced by another frequent collaborator Paul Corley, alongside the band. The LCO and Ames will join Sigur Rós for Friday’s show and accompany them on their following European tour dates. The group will also be accompanied by Ames and the Wordless Music Orchestra in North America.
Sigur Rós are one of the most successful bands of recent times and one of Iceland’s most successful acts of all time, with six number ones in their home country and a trio of Platinum albums globally. In the years since their last studio album, 2013’s Kveikur, the band launched the “Liminal” endless playlists built around blissed-out re-imaginings of moments from Sigur Rós’s catalogue both familiar and obscure.
In 2020 they released the almost mythical ‘lost’ recordings Odin’s Raven Magic, an orchestral album originally made nearly two decades prior. The band have also reissued their albums Agætis byrjun, Takk, ( ), Með suð i eyrum við spilum endalaust and Valtari on their own label Krunk.
Frontman Jónsi has released two solo albums, Shiver, featuring contributions from A. G. Cook, Robyn and Liz Fraser, and the album Obsidian which coincided with his solo art exhibition at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City.
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