Putting some meat on the bones of last week’s enigmatic pronouncement about their new concert film-ish project, Sigur Ros has confirmed Inni will be released as a live DVD/album package in November.
The announcement (see after the jump and below the video) explained the fractured look of the trailer that started making the rounds several days ago, revealing that director Vincent Morisset constructed the doc by re-filming his original digital footage of the band’s 2008 gigs at London’s Alexandra Palace on 16mm – then filming it again “through prisms and other found objects” to give Inni the look and feel of “something recovered from the past.”
It’s an apropos motif given that the Icelandic band has been on “indefinite hiatus” since shortly after those shows, and one that stands Inni in stark contrast to Sigur Ros’ previous film, Heima, which followed the band through a series of performances in unusual venues around their homeland. Where that film was colorful and lushly gorgeous, Inni is “filmed in a manner that invites both intimacy and claustrophobia” and “cocoons the viewer in a one-on-one relationship with the band.”
Sounds cool, but it’ll be interesting to see how the whole claustrophobic cocooning thing plays over 75 minutes. Audiences at the Venice Film Festival will get first crack at finding out; Inni premieres there September 3. If you want something a little less mediated, the concert DVD will be accompanied by the quartet’s first live album, an almost complete recording of the Alexandra Palace shows.
Here’s the full announcement, with the band’s e.e. cummings-like capitalization left intact:
inni – the definitive sigur rós live experience – coming this november
inni is comprised of a double live album and seventy-five minute film of sigur rós’ last show before their well-documented “indefinite hiatus” at the end of 2008.
recorded and shot over two nights at london’s alexandra palace at the close of the world tour around their fifth full length album, með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, inni sees the band at the peak of their powers, captured on film for the first time as a core four-piece since they were joined by string section amiina at the start of the century. directed by vincent morisset (arcade fire’s miroir noir), the film is set to debut at this year’s venice film festival on september 3rd, 2011.
inni is sigur rós’ second live film following 2007′s hugely-celebrated tour documentary heima. whereas that film positioned the enigmatic group in the context of their icelandic homeland, providing geographical, social and historical perspectives on their otherworldly music, inni focuses purely on the band’s performance, and stands as a stark counterpoint to heima’s kaleidoscopic richness. where heima was lush and colorfully expansive, inni is spare and near-monochromatic in its tunnel vision. filmed in a manner that invites both intimacy and claustrophobia, inni cocoons the viewer in a one-on-one relationship with the band, eschewing the audience for closeness, depicting how it feels for both band and fan to experience sigur rós live.
the film’s elegance and atmosphere are enhanced by morisset’s re-filming of the original digital footage on 16mm, which was then re-filmed again, sometimes through prisms and other found objects, allowing inni to look and feel like something recovered from the past. interspersed with this is archival footage drawn from the band’s previous decade, dating back as far as 1998. this juxtaposition gives viewers the full scope of sigur rós’ origins, evolution, originality and influence.
the live album inni – a first for the band – is comprised of the full set from alexandra palace, played in order with just one omission, and clocks in at one-and-three-quarter hours. recorded by sigur rós’ in-house studio engineer birgir jón birgisson, inni’s live audio recording is far and away the best way of replicating the full-force effect of standing in front of one of the world’s most extraordinary bands for an evening.
when taken in together, inni’s film and live album give us an incredible account of one of the most celebrated and influential rock bands of recent years, showing where they’ve come from, where they’ve been, and like all things sigur rós, where it is they will be going next.
more details of how, when and where inni will enter the world will be made available shortly on sigur-ros.co.uk.