The ethereally-voiced, Tin Tin-haired Jonsi Birgisson arrives in Sydney today after helping close out an unforgettable four days of Splendour in the Grass last night.

For those holding out for his Sydney and Melbourne headline shows, you are in for a hypercolour entrancing cross-artform collaboration with 59 Productions, who have been called “the most exciting purveyors of video for theatre in the world”. They are responsible for projection design for multi-award winning Iraq war drama Black Watch, brand new projections for Les Miserables, as well as countless operas and theatre productions around the world. The design for the show is partly physical and partly ephemeral, using a combination of set elements, animated projections, light, and shadows – which are synchronised with Jonsi’s euphoric tunes and ecstatic dancing.

The nature-themed projections continually morph… HD thunderstorms rage and flames flicker across a forest stage. Blue lakes pour out from the venue walls. Feathered sketches of wolves hunting deer, hummingbirds, and tumbling flowers float amongst his five piece band.

But truly, words can do this experience no justice. Watch the trailer of Jonsi’s live production (above) and head to jonsi.com for more live photos. While you’re there, download your free copy of Tornado from Jionsi’s debut solo album Go from  jonsi.com/tornado.

Sometimes when I like a song soooo much, I have to ration my listening, lest I give myself overkill. Currently somewhere between uncontrollable high rotation and self-imposed limited rations is Jónsi’s newest single Go Do. It’s coming from the Sigur Rós’ lead singer’s upcoming solo album Go. The songs on Go are playful, energetic, dramatic and with the majority of lyrics in English, I can take a break from both my Icelandic and Hopelandic Language 101 studies.

Included on the Go Do EP released today over on iTunes, are album tracks Kolniður and Grow Till Tall. We have them streaming on the soundcloud for you to take a listen in all their glory. Jónsi also kindly shared the track Boy Lillikoi awhile back to introduce his solo work.

So there you go, your Friday listening sorted. Because once you hear Go Do you will likely need to listen again approximately every 15 minutes. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Jónsi – Go Do EP by theinsound

Boy Lilikoi by Jónsi

Mystery abounds!

We have received word and sight of a new project from Jón Þór Birgisson, but the mystery is yet to unravel…

Head over to jonsi.com to preview 5 snippets from tracks (in English no less!) from the upcoming solo release. And if that doesn’t sate your appetite, sign up to his mailing list to receive a free mp3 of Boy Lilikoi.

For those of you unacquainted with the ethereal mews of Jónsi, he is the voice behind Icelandic heart-melters, Sigur Ros and recent side project Jonsi and Alex.

I’ve been flipping through the Jonsi & Alex recipe book “Good Heart”, and am pretty besotten with the duo’s recipes including Creamy Spinach Dip and Sweet Garlic Dressing.

They gave the cookbook out to friends and family as a Christmas present and now are sharing it with their fans.

The duo’s beautiful new album ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ is out now and all of the Special Editions of the album — available only through the Jonsi & Alex website — are sold out!

No need to cry into your Macadamia Mash, though, as the InSound has two of these packages stashed away in the cupboard and we’d like to give them away to a couple of culinary-inclined fans.

Send us a “Good Heart”-inspired recipe and we’ll give away two of the Special Editions to the yummiest sounding dishes. We’ll post the winning recipes on the blog.

Email your recipe to admin@theinsoundfromwayout.com by Tuesday, August 11 at 5pm EST and the two winners will be announced here on Thursday, August 13. View the terms and conditions.

Jonsi & Alex – Special Edition:
The Special Edition comprises not only our most lavish packaging to date, plus the original ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ art book, exclusive 40-page colouring book and pencils and, of course, the album itself, but also 33 minutes of additional music in the form of the three movements of the exquisite ‘All Animals’.

Jonsi & Alex’s Riceboy Sleeps is an album that us InSounders are sharing the love in full force – we’ve previously streamed a handful of tracks from this forthcoming album.

Now Jonsi & Alex are offering a free download of the track Boy 1904 off their website . The track is as you would imagine, haunting and operatic all at the same time, and features a sample of the only known recording of the last ever Castrato Singer. Amazing!

We’ve previously shared a bit with you about the forthcoming Riceboy Sleeps album. Back then, we were using the artists’ full names but have now abbreviated it to simply Jonsi & Alex. So far, the duo have shared 3 songs that will be on the album including: Happiness, All The Big Trees, and Daníell In The Sea.

Now, with a hushed sense of excitement, the InSound can unveil three more album tracks. Step into the very fittingly named Soundcloud for 24 mins 48 secs of escape.

And then find out a bit more about each and every track on the album from Jonsi & Alex themselves. (press play on the quicktime player below)

On the Dark Was the Night indie all-star contributor list was the track ‘Happiness’ from Riceboy Sleeps.  Who is this little fellow, you ask? Well, it’s Sigur Ros vocalist Jon Thor (Jónsi) Birgisson and his partner Alex Somers. The two have collaborated on visual art under the moniker and now we have an album to go along with it.

What to expect? Magical, ambient,  innocent, elegiacal instrumental music.

And straight from the bio:

Played solely on acoustic instruments in Iceland (and featuring long-time string collaborators Amiina, as well as the Kopavogsdaetur choir) and then endlessly toyed with on solar-powered laptops in a raw food commune in some far corner of Hawaii, ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ has a suitably, uh, organic feel to it.

I do like that ‘organic’ is actually being used literally. Take a listen.

Riceboy Sleeps by Jon Thor (Jónsi) Birgisson & Alex Somers — out 17th July.