Sigur Rós – Ágætis Byrjun (20th Anniversary Edition) //Krunk// (Released 5th July)

Description

£30.99 – 2xLP & DLC

In 1999 a band came out of seemingly nowhere to deliver a record that “filled a deep-seated need listeners didn’t even know they had” (Pitchfork Best Albums of the 00s). The band was Sigur Rós and the record Ágætis Byrjun (meaning A Good Beginning), and to mark its 20th birthday this June, the band will release a special anniversary edition of their breakthrough album.

The original album is released on heavyweight vinyl double LP, with bonus download content to include early versions and demos of the songs on the record, as well as never before heard songs that for the first time draw a line back to early influences which would soon become undetectable in the rootless beauty of the finished article.

Demos, Rarities And Early Live Recordings have been pulled together from the band’s own personal archive and contain many recordings they had forgotten existed.  Songs have guide vocals, or are played at different speeds, with alternative arrangements and no words – not even Hopelandic.  They are snapshots of a band trying things out and about to find their feet in a spectacular way. In some cases the only source might be a single, unlabelled cassette and, as a result, the odd glitch is part of the patina of age. These songs have been hand-picked by the band to include nascent versions of every song on Ágætis Byrjun, alongside demos of songs that didn’t make the cut, and the long sought after “Debata Mandire”, on which Jónsi and Kjartan duet in keening falsettos, before, as Kjartan says, his “bad habits” robbed him of the ability to sing that high.

There is also an immaculate recording of the concert the band played at the Íslenska Óperan (Icelandic Opera House) on 12th June 1999 to celebrate the release of record that would soon send them around the world on word-of-mouth alone, a pre-internet phenomenon. Recorded for Icelandic radio, the 95-minute show has not been heard in full since it was broadcast live on the day 20 years ago.

In a note of poignancy, the show at the Íslenska Óperan would be the last original drummer Águst Gunnarsson would play with his fellow band mates,  vocalist/guitarist Jón Thor Birgisson, bassist Georg Holm and keyboard player Kjartan Sveinsson, who himself had only officially joined the band the year before. Live At Íslenska Óperan, 1999 has been specially mixed for this 20th Anniversary Edition by Kjartan from the band and Birgir Birgisson, who all those years ago made the original RAS 2 radio recording of the event.  Birgir would later go on to be engineer at Sigur Rós’s own Sundlaugin studio.

Tracklisting:

A1. Intro

A2. Svefn-g-englar

A3. Starálfur

B1. Flugufrelsarinn

B2. Ný Batterí

C1. Hjartað Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm)

C2. Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása

D1. Olsen Olsen

D2. Ágaetis Byrjun

D3. Avalon

Demos, Rarities And Early Live Recordings (Download Content):

1. Svefn-g-englar (Live At Popp í Reykjavík, 1998)
2. Starálfur (Original Speed Version)
3. Flugufrelsarinn (1998 Demo)
4. Ný Batterí (Instrumental)
5. Hjartað Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm) (1995 Demo)
6. Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása (Alternative Ending)
7. Olsen Olsen (1998 Demo)
8. Ágætis Byrjun (1998 Demo)
9. Hugmynd 1 (1998 Demo)
10. Hugmynd 2 (1998 Demo)
11. Hugmynd 3 (1998 Demo)
12. Debata Mandire (Live At Laugardashöll, 1999)
13. Rafmagnið Búið (Ný Batterí EP, 2000)

Live At Íslenska Óperan, 1999 (Download Content):

1. Intro
2. Von
3. Syndir Guðs
4. Flugufresarinn
5. Olsen Olsen
6. Ágætis Byrjun
7. Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
8. Svefn-g-englar
9. Ny Batterí
10. Nýja Lagið
11. Hafssól