Jonsi & Alex – Riceboy Sleeps

Riceboy Sleeps, a visual and aural experience from Jonsi (of Sigur Ros fame) and Alex (of Jonsi’s boyfriend fame). This review is completely about the release “Riceboy Sleeps” and nothing about the visual art whatsoever. But if the art is anything like the music, then fans will be in for a very special treat.

The album is nothing shy of what you would expect from Jonsi of Sigur Ros. It’s every instrumental piece you’ve heard on Sigur Ros’ albums except slightly twisted. Some might consider this musical venture as a little more “out there” or even more “experimental” but to the casual listener of Sigur Ros, this is just another ambient album for people who like ambient music.

There is no real way to give a song-by-song analysis of this album. Every song bleeds into each other. There are definitely different emotions emoted through each song, and you will feel those if you really listen to this album, but there is no “track one shows a strong opening for this album” or “track four is where it loses steam”. You either can listen to this entire CD or you can’t. And with nine songs averaging between 5 and 10 minutes per song, there’s a lot to listen to.

I wish this was packaged with something to look at; preferably a DVD, but more realistically a slide show or something. This music really isn’t lacking anything on the music side of things, but is definitely missing that piece to it that allows someone to get lost in something. That last sentence might be a little confusing. What I mean is that you might want to get creative with this CD. A nice bike ride would complete this album. Maybe a walk? Laying on the beach with the tide as a backtrack to the entire album? Or even simply just getting on your favorite sneak-photo website (flickr probably would work) and look up some fan photos of the art from Jonsi and Alex. Something more than this album can offer will complete this album. Even as I listen to it and write this review the music is amplifying my want to really make this review better.

This album is most for people who want to delve into more Sigur Ros or more instrumental music. It’s almost symphonic. It’s definitely wordless, so don’t think you’ll find some sing-a-longs on this one. There are a few bands and artists out there right now who are doing the mixed media collaboration of music and art in harmony. Aside from Jonsi & Alex, NYC duo The Books also has a similar taste in visual entwined ambient music, playing with a very prominent visual stage performance to accompany their music. On the other side of the spectrum, mixed media artist Chris Jehly (http://chrisjehly.blogspot.com/) is always stating that music is what drives his artistic passion. Also, to plug Jehly, don’t be fooled by his “mixed-media” tag… everything he does is by hand. No digital enhancements at all. None. Which makes the idea of him doing one of his murals live to the backtrack of a live band even more exciting to see. Much like how Riceboy Sleeps would be even more exciting to see live with a projector of who knows what showing the inspirations of each song.

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