Sigur Ros have given an update on progress on their long-awaited new album, as well as announcing details of a new festival featuring the likes of Jarvis Cocker.

This week saw the band kick off their UK tour, with a trio of shows to follow at London’s Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. Now, they’ve announced a new festival that they’ll be curating themselves.

‘NORÐUR OG NIÐUR’ will be held at Reyjavík’s Harpa Concert Hall between 27 and 30 December and so far features Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, My Bloody Valentine‘s Kevin Shields, Stars of The Lid, Dan Deacon, Julianna Barwick, Sin Fang, Sóley and Örvar Smárason, JFDR and Hugar.

“We are beyond excited about NORÐUR OG NIÐUR,” said the band in a statement. “Organising your own festival is brilliant, you draw-up a fantasy league of all your favourite players, reach out to people, cross your fingers, and with a little bit of luck and good timing, get a wholly phenomenal squad of unbeatable talent all in one place at one time ready to make magic happen.” 

Not only that, but the band have also revealed that they’re making progress on a new record. Aside from last year’s one-off single ‘Óveður’, the band have not released a full-length album since 2013’s  acclaimed ‘Kveikur‘ – but now they say that they have a number of ‘happy’ tracks written. They’re hoping to release the album in 2018.

“We’ve completed a few songs… they’re kind of all over the place [in terms of mood],” drummer Orri Páll Dýrason told The List. “‘Kveikur’ was dark, and these are a little bit more happy, I think… I guess it’s just the headspace we’re in. We’ve been writing these songs over a long period of time, almost two years, and the emotions are very different, kind of all over the place. 

“Whereas’ Kveikur’ was written in really short bursts, this one has taken a longer time. We’ll see what happens when we get together for the next writing session, but maybe the world needs something happy? Maybe we all need some positive things?”

Sigur Ros

Elaborating on the sound of the record, he continued: “Most of the time [the change] comes from new equipment and instruments. It’s very easy to get stuck in the same place if you only have the same ones all the time, so if you push yourself towards learning new instruments or software, something fresh will come out of that.

“Like, I recently bought a midi saxophone, so I can connect it to my computer and play choir samples alongside it. I’ve never played saxophone, I don’t know the finger positions, but good music has already come out of it.”

Sigur Ros’ remaining UK tour dates are below

Wednesday September 20  – LONDON Eventim Apollo
Thursday September 21  – LONDON Eventim Apollo
Friday September 22 – LONDON Eventim Apollo
Monday September 25  – GLASGOW Clyde Auditorium

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