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Jónsi & Alex Somers: Riceboy Sleeps

with the London Contemporary Orchestra

,Barbican Hall
Jonsí & Alex, in military style jackets and feathered adornments, sit in long grass

Performing their expansive ambient record Riceboy Sleeps ten years since its creation, Jónsi & Alex showcase the album in full for its first ever European performance.

Played live with the London Contemporary Orchestra, the layers of dense strings, humming reverb and sampled chimes are fully accentuated. A satisfyingly rich piece of music which consumes its listener in a bath of sound.

Riceboy Sleeps was the name the partners adopted for their creative ventures together as visual artists, writers and musicians. This first, and only, record was recorded entirely acoustically at their home in Iceland while Jónsi’s band Sigur Rós were on hiatus, and was expanded into one of the most ambitious ambient classical works of music of the noughties.

Tagged with: Contemporary music

Performed by Jónsí, Alex Somers, the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames.

Arranged for orchestra by David Handler

This performance will start promptly at the advertised start time and running times will be confirmed closer to the event

As a rough guide, most events finish by 10.30pm at the latest.

Digital programme

‘Riceboy Sleeps operates at a heady level of beauty‘
BBC
‘It’s up there with the best of Sigur Rós‘
Evening Standard
‘beautifully fragile music, not disposable but built to last‘
The Observer

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