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The Story
Sigur Rós formed in Reykjavík in 1994, taking their name from frontman Jónsi Birgisson's newborn sister, Sigurrós. Around his cello-bowed guitar and unearthly falsetto they built a music with no obvious ancestors: slow, enormous, and strangely weightless, as if the Icelandic landscape itself had been given a voice.
Their 1999 breakthrough Ágætis byrjun carried them far beyond Iceland and became the first record ever to win the Shortlist Music Prize. Its successor, the Grammy-nominated ( ) from 2002, went further into abstraction — every song sung in Vonlenska, or 'Hopelandic', an invented language whose meaning is left entirely to the listener. Takk... (2005) gave them their most beloved song in 'Hoppípolla' and their Icelandic chart-topper 'Glósóli', pieces that have soundtracked everything from nature documentaries to weddings.
After Valtari (2012) and the darker, harder Kveikur (2013), the band went quiet for a decade, returning in June 2023 with ÁTTA — a surprise-announced eighth album recorded with a full orchestra, widely received as their most emotionally direct work. They spent 2024 touring it the way it was made: with orchestras, filling halls across North America and the Nordics with a two-set, career-spanning program.
The journey continues into 2026, as the band marks Takk...'s twentieth anniversary with a remaster and closes out its orchestral world tour across the UK, Ireland and Europe, performing with local orchestras and choirs in each city.
