Neon Musical Insight

Review by Caitlin Wittlif

Jónsi Birgisson is the closest thing the real, living world has to a Peter Pan. His childlike imagination and intensely creative musical abilities have been proven time and again on Sigur Rós albums, and on his first solo outing, Jónsi paints with every color on the canvas to construct a world of magic and revelry. This world is far from one-dimensional; though joy can be found in a majority of the songs on Go, there is still real heartache, frustration and devastation, presented so vividly that you can almost touch these emotions.
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A new song from Jónsi entitled: “Go Do” surfaced on the web late last week and today, an official video for the song premiered over at P4K which can be seen above. Directed by longtime Sigur Rós collaborators Arni & Kinski, this visually stunning video shows Jónsi surrounded by some feathered companions and string arrangements from the prolific Nico Muhly.

Jónsi’s solo debut effort Go will be out on April 9 via XL.

With Jónsi’s solo debut Go due out on April 9 via XL & a recently announced tour, fans of Sigur Rós and this particular crooner have a lot to look forward to. Back in December, the first single “Boy Lilikoi” off of Go was made available for download through Jónsi’s website and now, the second single has emerged.

A triumphant orchestral number, full of flourishing flutes and stampeding drums, mixed with Jónsi’s staggering falsetto. If you haven’t listened to Jónsi or Sigur Rós by now, you absolutely must. It will make you see the world in a different way. Check out the song at Parlophone’s Youtube page here.

After just announcing a few days ago Jónsi’s plans for his solo debut album Go, I received word of his North American touring schedule, which was marked as TBA on Friday. Touring will kick of on April 6 in Vancouver, Canada and will conclude for two nights on May 8 and 9 in New York at Terminal 5.

Jónsi will also perform at this year’s Coachella on night two of three (April 19).

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After releasing the colorful first single “Boy Lilikoi”, which is set to debut on Jónsi’s debut solo album Go, curiosity sparked just as to when the album would see the light of day. Well question no further. With musical arrangements being credited to Nico Muhly (worked with Grizzly Bear, Bjork, and many others)  Go will drop April 6 via Parlophone / XL records Stateside and the day prior everywhere else in the world. The image that you see above is the album artwork, created by Jónsi’s sisters Inga and Lilja.

Tour dates are set TBA on Monday, with the tour beginning in North America in April, as well. Below, is a picture of a maquette (a tiny cardboard model in layman’s term) of what Jónsi and crew are aiming to reveal at each show. Look’s like it’s gonna reach some pretty epic proportions.

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UPDATED BELOW* (12/08)

The density to almost any Sigur Rós composition is enough to fill an entire hall, yet Jónsi Birgisson — lead singer of the Icelandic band — still manages to find ways to topple over anything that he’s done in the past. Stepping out into the spotlight, Jónsi has revealed “Boy Lilikoi”, a single track that is set to appear on his forthcoming, album entitled Go. Go is said to be mostly sung in English and will feature the help from composer Nico Muhly — who has also worked with Grizzly Bear — along with production credits from Peter Kakis.

Kakis had this to say on the Calcutta blog about the album:

“It’s going to be a largely acoustic guitar record but also with a lot of ‘out there’ string arrangements…strings, woodwinds, brass, and double bass, actually.”

Download “Boy Lilikoi” and check out other bit size samples from  Go on Jónsi’s website.

– UPDATE –

Plans for Go have been revealed, with the album expected to drop on March 23rd via XL. Go will consist of nine songs, and the tracklisting can be found below:

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