Sigur Rós stun fans with surprise announcement for first new album in a decade

Ethereal Icelandic band are set to go on tour with a 41-piece orchestra

Sigur Rós dropped a surprise announcement for their new album, ÁTTA, on Thursday (15 June).

The Icelandic post-rock band’s first album in a decade will be released on Friday (16 June), the band announced.

The new project sees the return of multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson – who left the band in 2012 – to join frontman Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm.

With just the three band members in a room, they found themselves “wanting to have minimal drums and for the music to be really sparse, floaty and beautiful”, Jónsi said in the announcement. “We’re getting older and more cynical so I just wanted to move us so that we felt something!”

Sveinsson agreed: “We wanted to allow ourselves to be a bit dramatic and go far with these arrangements. The world needs that right now. It’s hard to describe, but for me everything is always open to interpretation. People can think and feel how they want.”

The announcement follows the release of their new single, “Blóðberg” on Monday (12 June). The album artwork features a rainbow flag – usually associated with LGBT+ Pride – on fire. Jónsi came out as gay in 1996.

The album artwork for ‘ÁTTA’ (Sigur Ros)

On Twitter, fans reacted with stunned elation at the surprise announcement.

“Tonight?! Whoooooooa. This is the best music news of the year,” one fan raved.

“I think god blessed us for today,” tweeted another.

“My goodness do you want my head to burst?” asked a third.

Sigur Rós formed in Iceland in 1994 and released their debut album three years later. In 1999 they made their international breakthrough with Ágætis Byrjun.

ÁTTA is comprised of 10 tracks and prominently features the London Contemporary Orchestra.

The band is set to go on tour with a 41-piece orchestra across Europe and North America, beginning with Meltdown Festival in London on Friday.

You can find the full tracklist for ÁTTA below:

1. “Glóð”

2. “Blóðberg”

3. “Skel”

4. “Klettur”

5. “Mór”

6. “Andrá”

7. “Gold”

8. “Ylur”

9. “Fall”

10. “8”