Happy Birthday 'Agaetis Byrjun' by Sigur Ros
” To mark the 10th anniversary of the Icelandic release of their breakthrough album ‘Agaetis Byrjun’, Sigur Ros have made available two exclusive live performances from the original launch party concert at the Icelandic Opera House on the night of June 10, 1999 - back when few people outside Reykjavik hadn’t the foggiest clue who they were.
‘Nyja Lagid’ video - filmed originally for Icelandic TV and unseen for years, this shows the boys when they really were still boys, performing a song that never made it onto Agaetis Byrjun (or any subsequent album) and disappeared from their set-list shortly after this date. The film also records the last show by original drummer Gusti. The audio of this live recording was featured on Sigur Ros’s first ex-Iceland release, the ‘Svefn-G-Englar’ EP.
‘Hafssol’ audio - a fascinatingly transitional rendition of the seminal ‘Hafssol’ (later ‘Hafsol’), which has been one of the true survivors in the band’s live show, having appeared in almost unrecognisably nebulous form on their debut album ‘Von’, and then gone through endless transmogrification year by year until its arrival on 2007’s ‘Hvarf/Heim’ double pack. (If you follow the link above you can sign up to download the song.)
Hope you enjoy them both. They’ll be further celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of ‘Agaetis Byrjun’ outside Iceland in due course, but we will of course let you know. ” from newsletter
