Wednesday, October 03, 2007

"heima" means you're at .. home

sigur rós, iceland's version of radiohead only without a screechy, moany vocalist and with gobs more talent (MHO YMMV XOXO), are previewing their first film, heima, which will go into broad release in november.

to create what seems to be a love song to a homeland, and to music, sigur rós filmed their travels during a free tour last summer. their press release does a better job explaining than i can:

while most people set up a few cameras at, say, a festival, and call it a dvd, sigur rós decided they would push the boat (bus and plane) out for their debut venture into live film, hauling 40-plus people round 15 locations to the furthest flung corners of their homeland to create something, well, inspirational.

on their way they went to ghost towns, outsider art shrines, national parks, small community halls and the absolute middle-of-nowhere-ness of the highland wilderness, as well as playing the largest gig of their career (and in icelandic history) at their triumphant homecoming reykjavik show.

'heima' (icelandic for "at home" or "homeland"), truly, shows sigur rós as never before. whereas seeing the group live is normally a large-scale and sometimes overwhelming experience, making full use of lights and mesmeric visuals, 'heima' was always intended to reveal more of what was actually going on on stage. it does this via long-held close-ups and a rare intimate proximity, without ever once breaking the spell.

loosely based on a documentary format - and including personal reflections from the band - 'heima' also serves as an alternative primer for iceland the country, which is revealed as less stag destination-du-jour and more desolate, magical place where human beings have little right to trespass.

click here or the image below for the gorgeously rich quicktime trailer. there's also a slightly different, lo-rez variation on YouTube.

if you've never heard sigur rós and/or you'd like to download some of their stuff, go to this download music page on their official website.** yeah, they're that rad. how many bands offer you detailed instructions on how to bittorrent their shit? social(ist) networks FTW.

**Finn recommends starálfur, untitled #8 (a.k.a. popplagið / the pop song) and von but what i am i saying they're all good. it's music to work by tho, not music to get you runnin up that hill.


whooza come to iceland with me?

3 comments:

fatmammycat said...

It looks like such a beautiful place doesn't it? I love snow, we hardly every get it here. We just talk about the great blizzard of '83, or whenever the hell it was, a lot. 'Oooh the drifts were up to the top of the roof so it were, we had to use powdered milk...'

FINN said...

just checked boogermaps on my iphone fatcat and you might wanna dig out the uggs cos it looks like snow's moving in from howth and there are big drifts of white in donegal.

that was a mac orgasm right there, btw: the macbook taking a Photo Booth shot of the iphone. i would like to extend to you an invitation to the pants party...

fatmammycat said...

It's maclovin' all round today. 17% leaving the gym but a bank of black over mah shoulder.
New runners are bouncy, but I'm clumsy as a tap dancing hippo in them. And now to the theatre-well burger first, then theatre.