Ágætis byrjun
| Ágætis byrjun | ||||
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| Studio album by Sigur Rós | ||||
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Publication |
June 1999 |
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
71 minutes 53 seconds |
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| occupation |
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|
Ken Thomas |
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Studio (s) |
? |
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Ágætis byrjun (“Quite a good start”) is the second album by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós . It was first released in Iceland in June 1999 on the Smekkleysa label and in August 2000 on FatCat Records .
General
The songs are, like most albums of the band, but in contrast to the follow-up album () , almost completely in Icelandic , the native language of the band members, performed (except for Olsen Olsen , which in by the singer Jónsi invented language Vonlenska sung becomes). It is also the first album with keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson and also the last with drummer Águst Gunnarsson, who left the band shortly after the end of the recording.
The album title is a nod to how the band reflected on their debut album Von ; this theme can also be found in the eponymous song.
Style and pieces
In contrast to the previous album Von , the style on Ágætis byrjun is more uniform and less experimental; on Ambient -pieces as they quite frequently occurred during its debut album, was almost completely eliminated, only the short, isolated in the title involved Interludes (z. B. between Svefn g englar and Starálfur ) still remind.
It is particularly noticeable that since this album Jónsi has used his guitar almost exclusively with the cello bow. Since then, this has contributed greatly to the typical sound of Sigur Rós. Overall, the sound is also much clearer and more defined than on Von , on which it is noticeably rough and echoing.
The typical sound of Sigur Rós now dominates the songs, but there are also influences from other musical genres in some of the songs, for example jazz in Ný batterí , jazz and blues in Hjartað hamast and Icelandic folk in Olsen Olsen .
The ten songs on the album are partially related to each other. The intro contains parts of the title track Ágætis byrjun played backwards , the song Avalon contains instrumental passages from Starálfur , but slowed down four times.
The pieces Ný batterí , Svefn-g-englar and Viðrar vel til loftárása were released as singles . In addition to the song Ný batterí , videos were also made for the singles. Svefn-g-englar was also part of the background music of episode 675 of the crime scene ( Nachtgeflüster (from Cologne), 2007).
Title list with translations
- Introduction - 1:36
- Svefn-g-englar ("sleepwalker") - 10:04
- Starálfur ("Glotzelfe") - 6:46
- Flugufrelsarinn ("The Fly Liberator ") - 7:48
- Ný batterí (“New Batteries”) - 8:11
- Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm) (“The heart is thumping (boom boom boom)”) - 7:10
- Viðrar vel til loftárása (“Good weather for air raids”) - 10:17
- Olsen Olsen - 8:03
- Ágætis byrjun (“A (quite) good start”) - 7:55
- Avalon - 4:04