For those of you who don’t know the band they are from Iceland and I suppose could be described as ‘alternative’ (which really means I don’t want to pigeon hole their music!). One thing I can say is they are not anything like Bjork!
The album () consists of a single white cardboard pocket with the faint imprint of two stylised brackets and a Sigur-ross signature in the bottom right hand corner. The CD itself is also completely white with the same imprint. There is no list of songs, band members, lyrics, photos or all those other tit bits of information that I usually love spending hours poring over... though there is a web site...
When I put the CD into my old beat up CD player it tells me the first bit of information that I had been longing to know- there are eight songs. That means its £1.25 per song (why do I automatically value albums on the £/song basis?)
When I press play... well I’m not even going to attempt to describe the sounds that are emitted from my players mediocre speakers suffice to say they are nothing short of beautiful.
I am usually someone who holds lyrics in extremely high regard. If I don’t know and understand the lyrics then I can’t fully enjoy the music. The language that Sigur-ross uses is not English. It’s not even Icelandic. It’s called Hopelandic and isn’t really a language at all- Its gibberish which fits the music and ‘acts as another instrument’. To me the beauty about Hopelandic is that it sounds so emotive and expressive- its beyond words, beyond language.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the constraints of language. At the end of the day any language is really just a series of sounds that we are taught to recognise and understand. The fact of the matter is that although language is great for everyday communication in most instances, we struggle to really communicate on a deep spiritual level- even more so when we use impersonal media as our primary form of communication. How often have we misunderstood a text message or email from a friend?
When I listen to Sigur-ross I can’t help think about ‘tongues’ (and here I’m talking about the spiritual language described in the Bible not French kissing!). Over the last number of years I have developed a theory for what its worth. Tongues is gibberish that fits our deepest aches and longings. It is a way of communicating with God beyond the constraints of language.
