CityLife

Must see: Jonsi

Jonsi

Academy - September 6, 2010

On entirely temporary release from his band (who have reportedly all gone on procreation leave), Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi is about to tour what many critics have called the album of his career.

Sixteen years into anyone’s musical journey, that’s an remarkable achievement on its own. But when your output is so universally acclaimed and – so the stories go – has even soundtracked the birth of a baby of Coldplay, Chris Martin’s Apple, scoring an even bigger pat on the back at this stage is no mean feat.

If there’s an artist that will probably continue to aim for higher and higher praise so long as he’s making music, though, it is Jonsi. Inventor of his own language – Hopelandic, in which he sings a great deal of Sigur Ros’s lyrics – and a man for whom writing melodies comes as easily as breathing, Jonsi is a rare and intriguing composer.

His second solo release, Go (a follow-up to last year’s Riceboy Sleeps), was an opportunity to purge a 10-year desire to record tracks he’d squirrelled away outside the boundaries of Sigur Ros.

That he should do it alone makes perfect sense when you listen to the claustrophobia of Sinking Friendships, the indulgently pop explosion of Boy Lilikoi or the reflective solitude of Tornado; that he has been able to do it now, though, was really pure luck.

He’s been on tour with the record since April, but he finally arrives in Manchester on Thursday.

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