They are creative and innovative often collaborating across a range of mediums. Here they ask film-makers to produce short films to go with their album 'Valtari'.
Sigur Ros are an Icelandic band whose creative genius is Jonsi who has also produced his own solo work, collaborations and soundtracks for films and TV dramas such as 'Game of Thrones'.
Jonsi sings the entire album () in 'hopelandic' which is a sort of gibberish or a new language. He repeats versions of the words 'You xylo. You xylo no fi lo. You so,' and the effect is mesmeric. It allows a focus on the sound and the melody rather than the lyrics.
This album was recorded near Reykjavik in a place called 'The pool', a building which housed a swimming pool and allows the band the creative space and infuses the recordings with a sense of the wild open spaces of Iceland. In the mountains open bright space offers inspiration and a connection with roots.
Ken Thomas is the producer and he had worked with punk artists, Queen and Indie bands which led to working with Icelandic singer Bjork and her band the Sugar Cubes
Their second album is called () or untitled or the Bracket album
Production characteristics include ;
- No acoustic treatment on the building which once housed a swimming pool allowing reverberation
- Playing the music live and experimenting, improvising and then recording in the studio
- The songs begin with a band performance recorded live, which is later edited and overdubbed.
- Used a Neve console with compressors on every channel. It is a quiet album in places so the recording captures the lows.
- Keyboards are intergral to the sound from a Hammond organ to a range of synthesisers such as the Yamaha RS7000 which has a sampler so that sound and voice can be captured and used.
- Microphone choice
-Russion Octav mics are used for overhead 'they are really good and cheap'. They are not very sensitive but fine for ambience - -'The Neumann U47 is a really good tube mic. When you put this in front of a vocal, it will take only everything that it's supposed to. There's no extra bottom or hum or bass or extra top, it's just perfect, no EQ needed' (Jonsi)
- "I think mic placement is really important. I spend quite a lot of time just moving mics slightly to get the right sound. You have to experiment with mics all over the place. We had mics up in the roof, up close, all in different places. We're always moving the mics slightly to get the sound that we like. It's all done very much like we're recording for the first time. It's good fun; we're experimenting. It isn't like we're in a room in Westlake Studio or something where everything's going to sound sweet. It's sort of a little bit garage-y and rough-and-ready. That's very much what they're about." (Jonsi)
- Playing the guitar with a bow as seen here on Glosoli for BBC 6 Music live
Sound sculptures
They had a mission to change music and some see them as pretentious but others as avant garde or visionary. Used a lot in television and film such as this BBC advert for Planet Earth
Their next album Takk really allowed them to break through and discover a global audience. More commercial with recognisable songs rather than a collection of soundscapes some of which are introverted and brooding, Takk allowed them to gain popular appeal.
Takk is Icelandic and Scandinavian for thanks.
Adjectives
Ethereal, atmospheric, improvisation, experimentation
Bibliography
This article from the trade journal Sound on Sound explains how the band and the engineer produced and recorded music.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul02/articles/sigurros.asp
Sound on Sound also has a glossary of technical terms
http://www.soundonsound.com/information/Glossary.php
This is a beautifully shot DVD which includes stunning images of Iceland and provides an insight into the ethos and roots of the band.
- Put some of you own opinions in
- Develop a personal response to the recording
- Why do you like it?
- Which parts are worth noting in particular.
- Make sure that you pull out recording characteristics.
- Identify at least there secondary sources.
Another band who are hard to pigeon-hole are Oxfordshire's Radiohead who have experimented with musical styles and instruments and broadened their range of recordings as they have developed as musicians. Early recordings include the single 'Creep' which although popular became a song they would not play live.
Always searching for new sounds and trying to innovate, they also looked for new models of distributing their music in the online age. They offered fans the option of paying as much as they thought it was worth for an album. A new relationship with their fan-base and a voice for action on issues such as climate change have been forged through their endeavours. Now the band follow side projects and solo projects such as composing soundtracks, DJ sets and collaborations, whilst delivering challenging and innovative music to audiences.
Their music videos are further examples of their collaboration with the creative community.
Production characteristics
Nigel Godrich is the producer and likes a lot of analogue recording equipment. I found an intersting article in 'Sound on Sound' about the way that Thom Yorke's powerful and often high pitched vocals are recorded.
'If you've ever seen Thom Yorke play live, you'll have noticed that he tends to open his mouth quite wide and tip his head back so that he's roughly pointing his nostrils at the mic's diaphragm. By doing this, he's brightening the sound of his voice reaching the mic, because high frequencies are bouncing off the roof of his oral and nasal cavities and beaming towards it.
There's a lot of low-frequency energy there, which gives the vocal a real weight, but there are also a lot of extreme high frequencies as well (above about 16kHz), which pulls the voice right to the front of the mix
You could do a lot towards achieving this kind of sound while recording. You should look for a condenser mic with an extended low-frequency response and an extreme high-frequency boost.
AKGC12
By putting a very dull reverb on the lead vocal, Godrich has encouraged the listener's ear to interpret what it's hearing as a bright vocal in an otherwise tonally balanced track, rather than just an over-bright track, for which it would try to compensate. The result is that the vocal remains subjectively bright (and therefore up-front) even as the ear acclimatises to the overall sonics of the track.'
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