Takk...

Takk... ([ˈtʰaʰkː]) is the fourth studio album by the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, released in September 2005 on EMI. The album debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard 200, selling 30,000 copies in its first week. In 2006, Takk... was certified gold by the BPI, marking 100,000 copies sold in the UK. In total, it has sold over 800,000 copies worldwide. "Takk" means "thanks" in Icelandic.

Music and lyrics

Unlike its predecessor ( ), the album's lyrics are mostly in Icelandic, with occasional elements of Vonlenska ("Hopelandic"), a scat-like form of gibberish. The songs "Andvari", "Gong" and "Mílanó" are sung entirely in Vonlenska. Moreover, the song "Mílanó" was written together with the string quartet Amiina.

Rhythmically, Takk... makes extensive use of changing time signatures. In the track "Andvari" for example, the main melody repeats itself every 27 beats, with stress on beats 1, 5, 9, 11, 16, 20 and 25. This could be rendered as seven bars of 4, 4, 2, 5, 4, 5 and 3 beats respectively. Against this there is a steady counter-rhythm of triple time, which could be rendered as eighteen bars of 3/8 time per 27-beat cycle, also known as a phrase.

Sigur Rós

Sigur Rós (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈsɪːɣʏr ˈroːus] SIG-ər rohss) are an Icelandic post-rock band from Reykjavík, who have been active since 1994. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi Birgisson's falsetto vocals, and the use of bowed guitar, the band's music is also noticeable for its incorporation of classical and minimalist aesthetic elements. The band is named after Jónsi's sister Sigurrós Elín.

History

1997–1998: Von and Von brigði

Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed the group in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name is Icelandic wordplay: while the individual words Sigur and Rós mean, respectively, Victory and Rose, "Victory Rose" wouldn't be grammatically correct; the name is actually borrowed from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós, who was born a few days before the band was formed, and then split into two words. They soon won a record deal with the local Sugarcubes-owned record label Bad Taste, because they thought the falsetto vocals were very cute and would appeal to teenage girls. In 1997, they released Von (pronounced [vɔːn], meaning "hope") and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði ([vɔːn ˈprɪɣðɪ]). This name is also Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "variations on Von". The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and has contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work.