Jónsi & Alex
Also known asRiceboy Sleeps
OriginReykjavík, Iceland
GenresAmbient
Years active2003–2019 (hiatus)
Labels
Members

Jónsi & Alex[1][2] is an Icelandic-American artistic collaboration between Jónsi and Alex Somers. They create ambient music as well as visual art. The music tends to be more ethereal and experimental than that of Sigur Rós, Jónsi's primary musical project.[3]

Visual art

Jónsi & Alex began as a Sigur Rós side project around 2003 under the name Riceboy Sleeps.[4] On November 24, 2006, they released their first picture book with the same name as their project.[5] One thousand hand-numbered editions were produced, and only available in Iceland. They released a second edition in July 2007 that was not hand-numbered.

To spread the word of the book's publishing, Somers and Jón held an art exhibition at Gallery Turpentine in Reykjavík, Iceland.[4] In August 2007, they went to Arkansas to hold their first exhibit outside of Iceland. In October of the same year, they held a third exhibit at Melbourne International Arts Festival and were part of the Sequences Art Festival in Reykjavík.[4]

Music

Jónsi performing at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, NYC.
Alex Somers live @ HMV Forum (a.k.a. Mean Fiddler), Camden Town, London, 26 May 2010

The two have released two singles: "All the Big Trees" and "Daníell in the Sea". Their song "Stokkseyri" played during the fourth-season finale of the hit British show Skins.

They also contributed the song "Happiness" to the Dark Was the Night charity compilation album produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National.[6][7] At that time, the duo were known as Riceboy Sleeps.

Their debut album Riceboy Sleeps was released in Europe on July 20, 2009.[8]

Their song "Stokkseyri" was featured prominently in the series finale of Friday Night Lights. Their song "Boy 1904" was featured in series 5 of Waterloo Road and in the soundtrack to Captain Fantastic (2016).[9]

In 2013, the two composed an original soundtrack as part of a tourism campaign for Western Australia.[10] They also composed the score for the first season of the acclaimed WGN America drama Manhattan,[11] which premiered on July 27, 2014.

In 2019, to mark the 10th anniversary of Riceboy Sleeps, the duo embarked on a North American tour performing the album in full. To accompany the tour, they released their second album, Lost & Found, on October 11, 2019. The album was said to be a "sibling album" to Riceboy Sleeps.[12]

Discography

See also

References

  1. ↑ "official site". jonsiandalex.com.
  2. ↑ "Twitter status". twitter.com.
  3. ↑ Charlie Hearn. "Jonsi Birgisson & Alex Somers – Riceboy Sleeps (EMI)". rockfeedback.com. Rockfeedback. Retrieved 2011-08-28.
  4. 1 2 3 "Word Press". wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 2009-04-30.
  5. ↑ "Moss Stories". mossstories.com. Archived from the original on 2009-04-06.
  6. ↑ "Dark Was The Night - full artist list, artwork and release date confirmed". 4ad.com. 2008-12-01. Archived from the original on 2009-06-28. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  7. ↑ "eighteen seconds before sunrise - sigur rós news » 2009 » February » 27". sigur-ros.co.uk. 2009-02-27. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  8. ↑ "Sigur Rós Frontman Announces New Album From Side Project". pitchfork.com. Pitchfork Media. 8 April 2009.
  9. ↑ "Captain Fantastic (2016) - Soundtrack.Net". www.soundtrack.net.
  10. ↑ "Tourism Western Australia unveils two new TV + cinema spots in its 'Experience Extraordinary' campaign via Host Sydney and The Glue Society". 25 September 2013.
  11. ↑ Gallo, Phil (April 22, 2014). "Sigur Rós Front Man Jónsi and Alex Somers to Score New Show 'Manhattan'". Billboard. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  12. ↑ Minsker, Evan (October 11, 2019). "Jónsi & Alex Somers Drop Surprise New Album Lost and Found: Listen". Pitchfork. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
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