It’s been less than a year since Sigur Rós released their last album, Valtari, so to hear that the Icelandic band will be releasing a new album in just a few months time is remarkable, especially when you consider they took a 4 year break between their fifth and sixth studio albums.
What’s possibly more remarkable is how completely different the new album seems set to be from Valtari. Whereas the last album was all bright and “floaty” the new album, entitled Kveikur, which means ‘priming’, and just by looking at the press photos and album cover, you can tell that it’s going to be a much darker and heavier affair.
This is confirmed by the first track to be released from Kveikur called “Brennisteinn” which is grander and more pummeling than anything on Valtari, and comes with a suitably dark and dramatic video directed by Andrew Huang, which you can watch/hear below.
Kveikur was self-produced by the three remaining members of the band, Jón Þór Birgisson, Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýrason (multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson recently left the band). It will be released through XL Recordings on June 17th/18th (UK/Worldwide).
The full track list for the album has not yet been revealed, but below you can see/hear “Brennisteinn” and the album’s ominous cover art. Beneath that are a new batch of large European tour dates that the band have announced in support of Kveikur.
Cover art:
Tour dates:
16th O2 Arena, Dublin, Ireland
19th Nottingham Arena, Nottingham UK
20th Brighton Centre, Brighton UK
21st Wembley Arena, London UK
23rd Rockhal, Luxembourg
24th Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
25th Mitsubishi Electric Hall, Dusseldorf, Germany
27th Baltiska Hallen, Malmo, Sweden
28th Spektrum, Oslo, Norway
