GusGus
| GusGus | |
|---|---|
 GusGus (Biggi Veira, Earth, President Bongo) |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) |
Techno , house , earlier also jazz , rock , downtempo , ambient |
| founding | 1995 |
| Website | http://www.gusgus.com/ |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson |
singing |
Urður "Earth" Hákonardóttir |
singing |
Högni Egilsson |
Electronic Instruments |
Birgir "Biggi Veira" Þórarinsson |
| former members | |
| Sigurður Kjartansson Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson Stephan "President Bongo" Stephensen Hafdís Huld (vocals) Emilíana Torrini (vocals) Herb Legowitz Biggi Thórarinsson Magnús Jónsson Baldur Stefánsson Ragnheiður Axel Magnús "Buckmaster de la Cruz") Herbmundow (DJ) Herbmundow |
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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GusGus , sometimes also written Gus Gus , is a music project started in Reykjavík , Iceland , which is characterized by changing compositions and style breaks. The current members of the band are Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson and Birgir Þórarinsson. The last three albums Forever , 24/7 and Arabian Horse can be assigned to techno . The band itself describes their style of music as techno / soul.
Band history
Early days: Pleasure
GusGus formed in 1995 while filming a short film called Pleasure . The two Icelanders Sigurður Kjartansson and Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson recruited, among others, the DJ Herb Legowitz, the actors Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson, Hafdís Huld, Magnús Jónsson, Birna Hafstein and Kjartan Guðjón Baldsson, the cameraman Stephan Stephensen and the producer. When the shooting of the film was postponed due to financial difficulties, Ágúst and Sigurður came up with the idea of recording an album as a soundtrack . Together with Birgir Þórarinsson and Magnús Guðmundsson, members of the band T-World , the group recorded their debut album of the same name within 11 days, which was released in Iceland in autumn 1995 in a limited edition of 1,000. The first work combined elements from jazz , rock , downtempo and techno . Other people involved in this album were the singer Emilíana Torrini , Ragnheiður Axel and Heiðrún Anna, who left the collective after these recordings.
In 1996 the band signed a record deal with the 4AD label , and a year later the album Polydistortion was released, which received good reviews.
Turn of the millennium: upheavals in the band structure
Their second album This is normal , released in 1999, was not as successful as hoped: The band's expenses soon exceeded their income, so that in 2000 the tour for This is normal was ended.
The members Hafdís Huld, then Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson, Magnús Jónsson, Baldur Stefánsson, Magnús Guðmundsson, Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson and Sigurður Kjartansson left the band.
In 2000 an ambient CD called GusGus vs. T-World with tracks from the heyday of T-World 1993–1994.
The singer Urdur Hákonardottir aka Earth took the place of Hafdís Huld. Magnús Guðmundsson aka Buckmaster de la Cruz rejoined the band for the "re-establishment". In 2002 GusGus got ready to achieve commercial success again with their singles David , Desire and Dance you down and the accompanying album Attention . Critics criticized the narrowing of their style to techno / house, which made the band forget the original range of musicality.
Current events
Most recently, Stephan "President Bongo" Stephensen separated from the band after 20 years.
The 6th studio album Forever was completed, which was released by its own label Pineapple Records and was released on February 23, 2007. In the meantime the project "Pineapple Records" has been buried again.
In December 2007 the singer Earth (Urdur Hákonardottir) left the band to devote herself to other projects. The former lead singer Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson , who had stayed on the albums Attention and Forever as a guest singer, became a permanent member again.
On September 14, 2009 24/7 appeared on the Cologne label Kompakt . It is most likely to be assigned to the electronic genre. The band describes it as a mixture of GusGus of the past, the Doepfer module synthesizer, minimal techno, old-style reggae dub and live performance. 24/7 was recorded live in the deep northwest of Iceland near the village of Flateyri in Önundarfjord in the Tankurinn studio. The album comprises six tracks with a total playing time of over 52 minutes.
The tour Come dance with me was enthusiastically received by critics and the audience in 2009.
The penultimate GusGus album Arabian Horse was released on May 23, 2011. Passengers of the Icelandic airline Icelandair were able to listen to the album on board a month in advance . According to Icelandair, it will be the first time that a music album has been presented on board an airplane and will have a "flying premiere".
In 2014 the album Mexico was released.
The new album "Lies are more flexible" has been announced for February 23, 2018. The first single "Featherlight" was released on January 19th, 2018.
Others
In addition to their own productions, GusGus are also active as a remixer and have so far produced remixes on behalf of Björk , Depeche Mode , Sigur Rós , Kraftwerk , Moonbootica and Tosca, among others .
According to information from Daniel Àgust Haraldsson, the band name is borrowed from Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film Angst essen Seele auf . The band liked how gently the protagonist pronounced the name of the dish couscous and made GusGus her own name.
In the film Suicide Kings the song "Gun" by GusGus is played in the opening credits.
Discography
Albums
- 1995: Gusgus
- 1997: polydistortion
- 1999: This Is Normal
- 2000: Gus Gus vs. T-World
- 2002: Attention
- 2007: Forever
- 2009: 24/7
- 2011: Arabian Horse
- 2014: Mexico
- 2018: Lies Are More Flexible
compilation
- 2010: 15 ára
Live albums
- 2003: Mixed Live at Sirkus, Reykjavik
Singles
- 1996: Polyesterday
- 1997: Believe
- 1997: Standard Stuff For Drama
- 1999: Ladyshave
- 1999: VIP
- 2002: Dance You Down
- 2002: Desire
- 2003: David
- 2003: Call Of The Wild
- 2005: Lust / Porn
- 2005: Need In Me
- 2006: Mallflowers
- 2006: Forever Sampler
- 2007: Moss
- 2007: Hold You
- 2009: Add This Song
- 2009: Hateful
- 2010: Come Into My Life / Hateful (with Jürgen Paape )
- 2014: Crossfade
- 2015: Sailor Kid
- 2018: Featherlight (EP)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE1 DE2 UK
- ↑ Biography on NME.com
- ↑ biography on laut.de
- ↑ Interview with exclaim.ca ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gus Gus - 24/7 || Interview ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ gig-blog.net
- ↑ Electronicbeats
- ↑ Interview @ nuflicks
