in 1994, while the band members were still in high school, sigur rós, translated into english as victory rose, began creating melodic, ethereal music together in their hometown of reykjavík, iceland.  soon after, they signed with icelandic record label bad taste, home to björk's original band, the sugarcubes.

along with lead singer/guitarist jónsi birgisson's falsetto singing voice and tendency for playing his guitar with a cello bow, sigur rós is known for writing lyrics in a language called, vonlenska (or translated in english, hopelandic), a meaningless syllabic gibberish.

their fifth studio l.p., með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly), released july 24, 2008, continues their intoxicating tradition of creating spacey, instrumental  progressive sounds.  although i have never been to iceland, i would imagine their atmospheric music recreates the beauty of the landscape of their home country.

there is some great stuff available for your listening pleasure.  click here for an in-studio set/interview recorded by wxpn's world café, october 28, 2005.  click here to listen to a september 26, 2005 set recorded for morning becomes eclectic, on l.a.'s legendary kcrw.  click here to listen to their 2001 u.s. radio debut also from morning becomes eclectic.  for more, check out, heima, a recorded collection of big and small shows the result of which allows the viewer to better understand the band in their natural habitat.

sigur rós are touring all over the globe, click here to find out if they will be playing near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.