After hearing the song, he said it was "a good beginning" the name stuck. The album's title came from a friend hearing the first song they had written for the album, which would become the title track. Sigur Rós' subsequent album, ( ), used Vonlenska exclusively for its vocals.
The strings in "Starálfur" are palindromic they are the same forwards and backwards.Īll vocals are sung in Icelandic, except for those on "Olsen Olsen" and the last section of the title track, which are sung in the gibberish language Vonlenska. The ten songs on the album include some self-reference: the introduction contains backmasked parts from the title track, and the last song, "Avalon", consists of a different take of an instrumental passage from "Starálfur" slowed to around a quarter of its original speed. Logo on the album cover in the font ShelleyAllegro BT Gunnarsson was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason in the same year. Ágætis byrjun is the band's first album to feature keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson, and their last to feature drummer Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson, who left the band several months after the album was released. It won numerous awards, and has appeared on multiple critics' lists of the best albums of the 2000s. According to their label Smekkleysa, the album sold 10,000 copies on its first year of release in Iceland, earning the band platinum status. It received a 2000 release in the United Kingdom and a 2001 release in the United States. Ágætis byrjun became Sigur Rós's breakthrough album, both commercially and critically. Ágætis byrjun represented a substantial departure from the band's previous album Von, with that album's extended ambient soundscapes replaced by Jónsi Birgisson's cello-bowed guitarwork and orchestration, using a double string octet amongst other chamber elements. The album was recorded between the summer of 1998 and the spring of 1999 with producer Ken Thomas. Boxsets also include a book filled with information about the album and band.Ī bumper reissue of Sigur Ros’ Ágætis byrjun is no less than this seminal record deserves.Ágætis byrjun ( Icelandic:, A good beginning) is the second studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, released on 12 June 1999. Live versions from a range of concerts throughout the late 90’s and early 00’s, demos and alternate mixes all appear here to shed further light on how the Sigur Ros sound developed around this time. To celebrate Ágætis byrjun’s twentieth birthday the album has been reissued with a veritable treasure-trove of bonus material. In short, the contemporary musical landscape would be rather different if it wasn’t for Ágætis byrjun. To modern ears one can see how this record provides a crucial link between fellow Icelandic acts like Múm and Björk and international artists such as Radiohead and Arcade Fire. Combining traditional rock instrumentation with chamber music, ambient techniques, dream-pop and contemporary classical composition, Sigur Ros create a style of music that is at once immediate and ethereal. While many bands have taken from (or wholesale ripped off) the sonic aesthetic of this album, the unique blend of sounds that the Icelandic group pioneered here has rarely been bettered since. After the modest success of 1997’s Von, Ágætis byrjun brought the band a global audience and ended up in several ‘Album Of The Year’ lists - and a few ‘Album Of The Decade’ ones, too. While Sigur Ros’ second LP Ágætis byrjun (A Good Beginning) was released in 1999, the record has rightly gone on to be regarded as one of the more important indie releases of the 21st Century.
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