Sigur Rós launch ‘ÁTTA’ film experiment wth new ‘8’ video
Sigur Rós have announced an experimental video series for their album ‘ÁTTA’.
The film experiment will feature 10 music videos – one for each track of ‘ÁTTA‘ – all created by different directors with “no rules or boundaries”, according to their website. The first of the 10, ‘8’, was directed by Icelandic artist Rúrí, known for her political and environmental feminist activism. Her 1983 installation “Rainbow I” serves as the artwork for the album.
“Among the many gems of the album ‘ÁTTA’, it was the song “8” that captivated me. It immediately connected not only to the present, but also to infinity. Catharsis – soft, melancholic, powerful and uplifting,” said Rúrí.
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The video follows the previous two short films released for ‘Andrá’ and ‘Blóðberg’. ‘Andrá’ was directed by Katya Gimro and Alexey Krupnik. About their choice of direction, Gimro said: “I wished to show how Sigur Rós is the soundtrack of our lives through happiness, pain, hope, grief, and love. The short documentary, Andrá, celebrates the way in which Sigur Rós captures and channels the humanity that unites us all.”
‘Blóðberg’ was directed by the highly acclaimed Swedish director, Johan Renck, who has worked on HBO’s Chernobyl as well as videos for Madonna, New Order and others. The video features a birds eye view of a barren land in reflection of socio-political and environmental anxieties.
In a four-star review of the album, NME shared: ‘ÁTTA’ is at least the band’s best album since 2005’s monolithic ‘Takk’ made them a household name, and at most a record that gives Sigur Rós plenty more reason to exist in adding some pure and natural soul to this cold and unfeeling world.”
In other news, the band’s bassist, Georg Hólm, recently admitted that he considered leaving Iceland after the band was accused of tax evasion.
The Icelandic government accused the band of of evading 151m króna (£840,000) of tax between 2010 and 2014. Blaming an accounting error, they repaid the debt plus interest, but then faced a second prosecution for the same offence in 2020, which froze their assets. They have since been acquitted.
Earlier this month, the band played Mad Cool Festival 2023 in Madrid.
