Sigur Rós announce UK tour for November and confirm new album in works
The Icelandic post-rock legends have lined up a lengthy European run
By Joe Goggins
Sigur Rós have expanded their 2022 world tour to include the UK and Europe.
The Icelandic post-rock stalwarts will play shows across the continent in September, October and November, including stops in Manchester, London and Glasgow. The full dates are below. They had already announced an extensive North American tour for April, May and June, which will take them to Mexico, the United States and Canada.
They’ll then head back to their homeland for a hometown show at Laugardalshöllin in Reykjavík on November 25. As initially announced last month, founder members Jón Þór ‘Jonsí’ Birgisson and Georg Holm will be joined on the road by Kjartan Sveinsson, who returns to the fold after a decade away spent focusing on other projects.
The trio are currently writing and recording their eighth studio album, which is planned for release this year. It will be their first in nine years, following 2013’s ‘Kveikur’, their only full-length release without Sveinsson. They intend to air new material on tour. Since ‘Kveikur’, they’ve kept busy by working on their “endless playlist”, ‘Liminal’, which they marked by holding ‘soundbath’ events around the world.
In 2020, they released finally released ‘Odin’s Raven Magic’, an orchestral record that had taken on near-mythical status among the group’s fas after being thought lost for two decades. They also reissued most of their pre-‘Kveikur’ discography, re-releasing 1999’s ‘Ágætis byrjun’, 2002’s ‘( )’, 2005’s ‘Takk…’, 2008’s ‘Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’ and 2012’s ‘Valtari’.
Jónsi put out two well-received solo records during the lay-off – ‘Shiver’, in 2020, and ‘Obsidian’, the following year – which featured contributions from A.G. Cook, Robyn and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins. The latter record coincided with his art exhibition at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City.
Sigur Rós, November 2022:
7 – Manchester, O2 Apollo
10 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
11 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
14- Glasgow, SEC Armadillo