Alex & Jónsi

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Jónsi & Alex is an artistic collaboration between Jón Þór Birgisson (singer for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, born April 23, 1975) and his partner 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. (P: Kennysun. Jonsi Performing at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, NYC, 2012)

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". Their song "Stokkseyri" played during the fourth season finale of the hit British show Skins.

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.


Shimelle Laine. Alex Somers at the Riceboy Sleeps launch, 2009

Their debut album Riceboy Sleeps was released in Europe on July 20, 2009.

Their song "Stokkseyri" was featured prominently in the series finale of Friday Night Lights. Their song "Boy 1904" was featured in series 5 of Waterloo Road.

In 2013, the two composed an original soundtrack as part of a tourism campaign for Western Australia.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3nsi_%26_Alex

Further Readings:

Riceboy Sleeps
Audio CD (July 21, 2009)
Original Release Date: 2009
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Beggars Xl Recording
ASIN: B002ANHMBU
Amazon: Riceboy Sleeps

Jon Thor Birgisson (Sigur Ros) and Alex Somers (Parachutes) have been exhibiting artwork and staging exhibitions under the name Riceboy Sleeps for a few years now. Their track "Happiness" was featured on the "Dark Was The Night" compilation. This record is more active than its antecedents in the ambient output of Brian Eno and other deliberately low-impact works.

More LGBT Couples at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance