Jónsi

After spending 16 years as the singer/guitarist in the Icelandic group Sigur Rós, Jon Thor Birgisson renamed himself Jónsi and began a solo career. Though he had used the name before on a project with Alex Somers (as Jónsi & Alex on 2009’s album Riceboy Sleeps), the pixie-voiced singer’s first solo album under the Jónsi name was Go, which was released on longtime label XL in the spring of 2010. Featuring more upbeat and poppy songs than those he had written and sung with Sigur Rós, Jónsi was joined on the album by Somers, modern composer/arranger Nico Muhly, and Samuli Kosminen. Shortly after the release of the album, Jónsi began a world-wide tour that lasted the rest of the year. The album sold a fair amount of copies and his profile was boosted by the appearance of a newly recorded track, "Sticks and Stones," for the soundtrack of the hit children's movie How to Train Your Dragon. In November of 2010, Jónsi released Go Live, a CD/DVD set that included live recordings taken during the European leg of the tour on the CD and live footage of dress rehearsals shot before the tour kicked off. Jónsi's song on the Dragon soundtrack led to his working with Cameron Crowe on the soundtrack to the director's 2011 film We Bought a Zoo. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi