Jónsi & Alex / Riceboy Sleeps / CD
Amiina - Kurr
Jónsi & Alex is an artistic collaboration between Jón Þór Birgisson (singer for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós) and his boyfriend 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 & Alex began as a Sigur Rós side project around 2003 under the name Riceboy Sleeps. On November 24, 2006, they released their first picture book with the same name as their project. 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. 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.
The two have released two singles: "All the Big Trees" and "Daníell in the Sea."
They also contributed the song "Happiness" to the Dark Was the Night charity compilation album produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. At that time, the duo were known as Riceboy Sleeps.
Their debut album Riceboy Sleeps was released in Europe on July 20, 2009.
Tracklist:
1. Happiness Riceboy Sleeps 9:20
2. Atlas Song Riceboy Sleeps 8:29
3. Stokkseyri Riceboy Sleeps 7:12
4. All The Big Trees Riceboy Sleeps 5:16
5. Boy 1904 Riceboy Sleeps 5:03
6. Sleeping Giant Riceboy Sleeps 7:23
