CityLife

Jonsi

Jónsi
Academy
September 6, 2010

Having placed his day-band Sigur Rós on indefinite hiatus, the elfin 35-year-old is promoting his debut solo album, Go, in which he tempers whoosy symphonic soundscapes with an indelible pop nous.

Opening with the ballad Stars In Still Water, which prompts a reverential silence in the audience, Jónsi performs in front of a curtain painted with images of a forest  onto which Fantasia-like images of animated deer, bats, spiders and thunderstorms are projected.

At its worst, some tracks can be described as ‘background music’. Often divested of intelligible lyrics, it’s the sound of pure melody. But when he gets it right, the results are enchanting.

Augmented by a five-piece band, the likes of the breathless Animal Arithmetic and  Boy Lilikoi suddenly bare hitherto unseen teeth live.

Throughout, Jónsi’s celestial vocal is never less than spellbinding, soaring and cartwheeling like a choirboy tumbling down a well. When he returns to the stage for the encore, he’s clad in a feathery Native American-like headdress. As the thunderstorm visuals engulf him during Grow Till Tall, it’s a fittingly audacious end to a night both bewitching and bewildering.

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