Photo credit: (C)Thomas Aurin
Kjartan Sveinsson is a composer, musician and performer. He first came to prominence as a member of Sigur Rós, the Icelandic band – sometimes characterized as ‘post-rock’ – of which he was a member from 1997 to 2012, releasing five studio albums, a film and several side projects, and selling several million records around the world.
Sveinsson played keyboards and guitar in Sigur Rós, as well as being responsible for the band’s frequent arrangements for strings, brass, choir and orchestra. In 2008 he played his final show with Sigur Rós in the band’s hometown of Reykjavík, although he continued to write and record with the band until 2012’s Valtari album.
In 2014 Sveinsson and Ragnar Kjartansson (Iceland’s foremost performance artist) collaborated on Der Klang Der Offenbarung Des Göttlichen, an opera in four movements for Berlin’s Volksbühne Theatre. Translated as The Explosive Sonics of Divinity, the piece combined Kjartansson’s theatrical set designs for an empty stage, with Sveinsson’s sweeping and romantic orchestral score.
Der Klang Der Offenbarung Des Göttlichen is the first of Sveinsson’s post-Sigur Rós work to be released. Read more and download now via Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound.