Jónsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps

Year of Release: 2009

Label: XL

Genre: Post-Rock / Ambient

Music: 3

Sound: 3.5
Format Reviewed:CD 

LISTEN to the COMPLETE album on MYSPACE

I'm a firm believer that your physical surroundings have a significant impact on your creative output.  Just take a look at Iceland - which is volcanically and geologically active, resulting in a topographically diverse island, comprised of mountains, sand fields, and glaciers that dramatically flow out to sea - and it's not a surpise it's spawned such artists as Björk, Sigur Ros and Amiina just to name a few.

Björk's dedication to her friend and homeland, Jóga is a shining example of this influence and is reflected in both the music and more directly in the video clip.

Rugged...

Raw...

But Incredibly Beautiful

Iceland @ Eurovision - Not So Much

"Riceboy Sleeps", is a musical collaboration between Sigur Rós' guitarist and vocalist, Jón 'Jónsi' Þór Birgisson and his romantic partner, Alex Somers who is responsible for much of the stunning art and graphic design of Sigur Rós' albums.

The album opens with what I find an ominously titled track, "Happiness", that runs just over 9 minutes.  It features the beautiful string work of the minimalist quartet Amiina and creates a beautiful soundscape that is sparse and distant, much like the terrain of their homeland.

The second track "Atlas Song", makes innovative and haunting use of the Kópavogsdætur choir.  Now is probably a good time to mention that this album is devoid of Jónsi's unique voice, that features so prominently in the music of Sigur Rós.  It is entirely an instrumental album, recorded with acoustic instruments, bleeped and tweaked in post-production.

The sound of the album is immediately Sigur Rós but at the same time it is not - think Post-Rock minus the Rock component.  This release really is an ambient work that could almost stray into contemporary classical but lacks the technical strengths that a purist would demand. 

After 3 songs in (and 27 minutes), I was starting to feel underwhelmed by the ambient soundscape that was being presented.  Whilst, each individual track is undeniably beautiful the resulting album is unfortunately less than the sum of its parts.  Each track starts to sound like the one before and the beautiful textures that are first evoked fail to evolve like the rich and varied landscape of Iceland.

"Riceboy Sleeps" - 67 minutes of this

I find this album difficult to listen to in its entirety, which is unfortunate, as I think it is undeniably put together by a gifted group of musicians and collaborators.  I believe that this album is actually meant to accompany the art work included in their 52 page wordless picture book that was released in 2006 and this would make a lot more sense.  However, this only makes me wonder as to why this album was released separate from it's respective artwork 3 years later.  Odd.


So it's not a standout album and I thought perhaps I could salvage it as a sleeping aid and drift away to it's dream-like sound.  Unfortunately for me, this is not possible as for some strange reason - in spite of this being an ambient soundscape recording - it is LOUD, so loud I found myself listening to it which the remote in hand to constantly adjust the volume. I guess that's the element that puts the Rock back into Post-Rock.

"Riceboy Sleeps" Bookcover.  For suggested use with album.