Friday, February 8, 2008

Logo #179: Sigur Rós

The iconic "angel foetus" of Icelandic band Sigur Rós was drawn (with a Bic Stic!) by Gotti Bernhöft for their 2000 LP "Ágætis byrjun." Singer Jón Þór Birgisson's apparently nonsensical language of Hopelandic was the most innovative linguistic conceit in pop music since Liz Fraser's lyrics in Cocteau Twins (which came from her taking all the spaces out of a line of verse and then just re-inserting the spaces in odd places). The popular mooing song "Svefn-g-englar" was the hit of 1999 and, through its inclusion in the film "Vanilla Sky," may be the song for which most people remember the band. I have infinite scads of time for Sigur Rós. Like the angelic foetus, they represent promise and beauty - and how fragile those possibilities essentially are. Their fifth album scheduled for late this year; their film "Hvarf-Heim" premiered at various cinemas throughout the world last year.

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