Jónsi ¤ Go Live (CD/DVD, 2010, 11)

Jónsi ¤ Go Live (2010)

Jónsi ¤ Go Live
Birth name: Jón "Jónsi" Þór Birgisson
Born: April 23, 1975
Notable instruments: Gibson Les Paul
Location: Iceland
Album release: November 29, 2010 / June 21, 2011
Record Label: Parlophone / 101 DISTRIBUTION / EMI Records
Duration:     78:09 (CD 1)
Tracklist:
Disc: 1
01. Stars In Still Water (Live In Brighton)      5:47
02. Hengilás (Live In Belgium)      5:21
03. Icicle Sleeves (Live In Belgium)      5:23
04. Kolniður (Live In Belgium)      4:00
05. Tornado (Live In Belgium)      7:08
06. Sinking Friendships (Live In Belgium)      4:58
07. Saint Naive (Live In Belgium)      5:16
08. Go Do (Live In Belgium)      4:44
09. Boy Lilikoi (Live In Belgium)      4:23
10. Animal Arithmetic (Live In Belgium)      3:35
11. New Piano Song (Live In Brighton)      5:06
12. Around Us (Live In Belgium)      7:53
13. Sticks And Stones (Live In Brighton)      4:19
14. Grow Till Tall (Live In Belgium)      10:10
Disc: 2
01. Hengilás (Live In London)
02. Icicle Sleeves (Live In London)
03. Kolniður (Live In London)
04. Tornado (Live In London)
05. Sinking Friendships (Live In London)
06. Go Do (Live In London)
07. Boy Lilikoi (Live In London)
08. New Piano Song (Live In London)
09. Around Us (Live In London)
10. Volume Pedal Song (Live In London)
11. Grow Till Tall (Live In London)
Notes:
≈ Jónsi went on tour with his album Go on the 6th of April 2010, and was until later in the summer. The tour does not include any venues within Jónsi's home country of Iceland. Jónsi touring band includes Alex Somers on guitar, soundeffects and keyboards, Thorvaldur Thór Thorvaldsson on drums, Ólafur Björn Ólafsson on keyboards and Úlfur Hansson on bass and monome.
Editorial Reviews:
≈ After the release last April 5 to "GO", the album Jón "Jónsi" Þór Birgisson solo, better known by the name of Jónsi, the lead singer of Sigur Rós's gone on a world tour to defend his gem on stage. This tour has resulted in recording a live album fabulous. Real phenomenon on stage, you will discover through this CD / DVD (NTSC/Region 0) the poetic and joyful Icelandic singer and an incredible show both audible and visual (projection etc). This included live tracks including rare and unreleased!
Editorial Reviews:
≈ Deluxe two disc (CD + PAL/Region 0 DVD) edition of this live release from the Sigur Ros member, recorded during his tour in support of his solo album Go. .The CD contains 14 tracks while the DVD features 11 performances.
Website: http://jonsi.com/
≈ “I wish I was able to express how important Jonsi and Sigur Ros' music has been to me. ” - beardsbeardsbeards |
≈ “I fully recommend you to get this combo. ” - Bryan A. Gonzales |
≈ “You can't just listen to this cd, you experience it Buy this cd, My life has never been the same. ” - Basmajian |
Review by David Bevan; December 6, 2010 / 7.9
≈ To gain entrance to Jónsi Birgisson's first private solo performance last March, attendees were required to dress as animals. The show was a final dress rehearsal at 3 Mills Studios in London, a few weeks before the Sigur Rós frontman's proper debut LP, Go, was released and his theatrical, projection-bolstered live setup would hit the road for much of 2010. There were women donning feathered headdresses, kids with furry earmuffs, and grown men in bear outfits nursing beers. Also amongst the crowd was a camera crew on hand to capture the event, footage of which has been spliced together with backstage scenes and interviews to comprise the visual half of Go Live, a DVD/CD available exclusively on Jónsi's website (and, apparently, in some Japanese shops). While the live audio recordings here were culled from a later show in Brussels, the relationship between the two halves is close. That scene in London mirrors what's been happening on every stage he took this year, the often playful, always kinetic spirit of Go come to life in more than one way.
≈ Because Jónsi's only got the one record of his own material, he bulked up his setlist with tracks that are seeing release together for the first time here. Songs like the stately, fingerpicked opener "Stars in Still Water", forgettable "New Piano Song", or his contribution to the How to Train Your Dragon OST, "Sticks & Stones", add an extra layer of muscle to his sparse catalogue.
≈ One of the major challenges Jónsi faced when bringing Go to the stage was in figuring out how to translate the indelible studio contributions of composer Nico Muhly and percussionist Samuli Kosminen. Each track here has been reworked terrifically, Muhly's lively flourishes sometimes left behind for ambience's sake, but never far at all. Instead, like in the nearly three-minute intro to "Tornado", a similar magic and color is conjured by bells, piano flurries, and xylophonic tapestry. In that vein, "Boy Lilikoi" feels warmer and more spritely. Jónsi's band has been able to generate extraordinary levels of texture, the crisp sound of live percussion alone enough to give already strong arrangements new breath.
≈ As compelling as the many visual elements (see the Never Never Land sartorial decisions, atavistic animations, interview snippets, HD everything) on the DVD can be, the Fifty Nine Productions-helmed film is more a document of their concepts than the actual Jónsi live experience. That's why the album itself seems all the more necessary. The sonics are appropriately huge, and there at its center is an instrument that's better recorded than it could ever be filmed: Jónsi's voice. It arches, it splays, it cloys, it still coats everything here with expansive, far-reaching qualities that befit the cinematic nature of his songwriting.
≈ What's particularly special about Go Live is the fact that Jonsi's vocalizing loses the safety netting and sheen it enjoys in a studio. There are moments, like in the early quiet of closer "Grow Till Tall", when he goes unimaginably high, his cords unable to hold up as long as he'd like. You can hear him inhale and you can hear his voice give out ever so briefly. Part of the appeal in seeing Jónsi (or Sigur Rós for that matter) in a live setting for the first/any time is being able to attach faces to often-faceless music. When Jónsi's voice cracks, what was alien on record now sounds positively human.
Fortaken: http://pitchfork.com
For fans and newcomers alike, this is a very attractive package
≈ Mike Diver 2010-12-13
≈ A release exclusive to the artist’s own website – you won’t find this in any two-for-a-tenner racks – Go Live is just that: Jónsi’s Go album of earlier this year, live. A CD and DVD set, it features recordings from a show at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels alongside three numbers from Brighton’s Dome. Though these sets were recorded at very different stages of the album’s tour cycle – May and September 2010, respectively – everything is sequenced so well that no gaps are heard. It’s natural to assume this is a single performance.
≈ One’s appreciation of the material (obviously) depends on their affection for the Sigur Rós vocalist’s debut solo LP – all nine tracks make the transfer, albeit not in the same sequence as the studio version. Inevitably, it’s the single Go Do that most noticeably stirs the Belgian audience; elsewhere, there’s a stillness and clam from the crowd – it’s more a case of hearing a feather fall, rather than any pins drop. Some of the magic heard on Go is lost through the live performance – the warm textures that can only come through post-production and the right mixing – but anyone who doubted Jónsi’s ability to carry a concert without the backing of his Sigur Rós bandmates is made to look very silly indeed. His vocals soar throughout, effortlessly and with a singular otherworldly elegance.
≈ Of interest to those particularly taken with Go will be the five previously unreleased tracks included in the 14-song set. Volume Pedal Song and New Piano Song are, as their titles imply, primarily sketches, and are exclusive to the DVD. But the droning Icicle Sleeves, rousing opener Still Stars in Water and quietly charmer Saint Naïve slip easily beside familiar numbers. Also included is the hyperactive Sticks and Stones, the CD’s penultimate offering heard over the closing credits of surprise hit movie How to Train Your Dragon. After that, a wonderful rendering of Grow Til Tall, which ends with unexpected turbulence and bombast.
The DVD set isn’t the same as what’s heard on CD – instead, it’s the final dress rehearsal for the tour, filmed back in March 2010. As such, there’s a rather more studied, almost cautious pattern to the playing; but it still complements the audio side of this set really rather well. A hardback sleeve with plenty of on-the-road snaps completes what is, for fans and newcomers alike, a very attractive package.
Languages:
≈ Jónsi's first language is Icelandic. He also speaks English, according to the official Sigur Rós web site:
≈ On the first three Sigur Rós albums (Von, Von Brigði, Ágætis Byrjun), Jónsi sang most songs in Icelandic but two of them ("Von" and "Olsen Olsen") were sung in 'Hopelandic'. All of the vocals on ( ) are in Hopelandic. Hopelandic (Vonlenska in Icelandic) is the 'invented language' in which Jónsi sings before lyrics are written to the vocals. It is not an actual language by definition (no vocabulary, grammar, etc.), but rather a form of gibberish vocals that fit to the music and act as another instrument. Jónsi likens it to what singers sometimes do when they've decided on the melody, but haven't written the lyrics yet. Many languages were considered to be used on ( ), including English, but they decided on Hopelandic. Hopelandic (Vonlenska) got its name (from a journalist, not Jónsi himself) from the first song which Jónsi sang on, "Hope" (Von).
Activism:
≈ In 2003 he was escorted off the premises while protesting against Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project in Iceland.
Notes:
≈ Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant is a hydroelectric power plant in eastern Iceland designed to produce 4,600 GWh annually for Alcoa's Fjardaál aluminum smelter 75 kilometres (47 mi) to the east in Reyðarfjörður. The project, named after nearby Mount Kárahnjúkur, involves damming the Jökulsá á Dal River and the Jökulsá í Fljótsdal River with five dams, creating three reservoirs.
ORIGINAL:
Personnel:
≈ Jón Þór Birgisson – vocals, sampler, guitar, piano, ukulele, glockenspiel
≈ Samuli Kosminen – drums, percussion, kalimba, harp
≈ Nico Muhly – piano, celeste, glockenspiel, string arrangement, brass arrangement, wind arrangement
≈ Alex Somers – guitar, piano, celeste, glockenspiel, sampler
Additional musicians:
≈ Hideaki Aomori – clarinet
≈ Edward Burns – bassoon
≈ Christa Robinson – oboe, horn
≈ Alexandra Sopp – flutes
≈ William Lang – bass trombone
≈ David Nelson – trombone
≈ David Byrd-Marrow, Kate Sheeran – french horn
≈ Caleb Burhans, Courtney Orlando – violin
≈ Nadia Sirota, John Pickford Richards – viola
≈ Clarice Jenson, Brian Snow – cello
≈ Logan Coale – double bass
Technical:
≈ Jón Þór Birgisson – writer, producer
≈ Alex Sommers – producer
≈ Peter Katis – producer, engineer
≈ Greg Giorgio – assistant engineer
Reception:
≈ Go has received mostly positive reviews from critics, scoring a 77/100 on the music review aggregator website Metacritic. Most reviews praise Muhly's precise arrangements and Jónsi's flighty vocals, while a few lukewarm reviews discuss the album's lack of cohesion. The album has reached number twenty on the UK Albums Chart, number twenty-three on the Billboard 200 in the United States, number six on the Belgian (Flanders) Ultratop chart, number thirty-one on the Swiss Albums Top 100, and number eighty-four on the Dutch Mega Album Top 100. ≈

© This is the cover art for Go by the artist Jónsi. The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the label, XL Recordings, Parlophone, or the graphic artist(s), Inga and Lilja Birgisson. ≈ © Go Do is an extended play (EP) by the Icelandic singer Jónsi, the lead singer of Sigur Rós. Go Do was released on 22 March 2010 as the lead single from his debut solo album, Go. The EP was produced by American producer Peter Katis, Jónsi and his boyfriend, Alex Somers. ≈