Sigur Rós Take-Away

I'm a huge supporter of La Blogotheque, family friendly francophone blog de musique! Maybe it's because I pretend I'm wonderful at reading French. Maybe it's because I just love the intriguing attitude and great musical insight they have. Maybe it's because they've introduced me to folks like Priscilla Ahn and Slow Club. Maybe I just like the fact that there is nothing like these cool cats out there. Who knows, eh?

Regardless, their addition to the blogosphere which they're most hailed for is their video-performance series Concerts à emporter, en anglais, their Take-Away Shows. Over the last few years, the wild Parisians have snagged some wonderfully eclectic and unique performances by some of the best and brightest performing these days: Ra Ra Riot, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, The Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, Lykke Li, and many more. And as if they couldn't do an even grander job at capturing very unique, very moving live performances lost in the streets of the French capitol, La Blogotheque has outdone themselves.

Sigur Rós. Their name is infamous these days: the enigmatic, though infectiously deep and moving band from Iceland which plays insurmountably epic tunes of the post-rock variety (or whatever other name for the genre strikes your fancy), only rivaled in renown by fellow Icelandic musician Björk. From Von, to Ágætis byrjun, the Hopelandic exploration of (), and the hugely orchestrated Takk..., Sigur Rós has come a very long way from their home of Reykjavík, but also has remained true to themselves. They humbly celebrated their many years of playing together with the release of their latest album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, last year.

Sigur Rós is as esoteric as the Icelandic landscape anywhere away from The Ring Road, but one thing is clear: Sigur Rós does not play acoustically. Somehow, La Blogotheque wooed them into doing just that. Now Sigur Rós has met La Blogotheque's quirky style of videos in their Take-Away Show series; the collective performs a single song - "Við spilum endalaust" - at La Closerie Des Lilas, à Paris. The experience is as invigoratingly fresh and exuberant as you could ever imagine; the small room busied with patrons and clinking glasses of wine is filled to the windows and walls, brimming at the seams with very bright, organic piano alongside Jón Þór Birgisson's vibrant, illuminating falsetto juxtaposed to the deep acoustic bass and brushed drums. I can speak no more for the magic. See it for yourself, right away.



Sigur Ros - Við spilum endalaust - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.