Sigur Rós kicked off their London residency at Royal Albert Hall last night (Tuesday September 30), where they also debuted the classic ‘Ára bátur’. Check out footage, photos, the setlist and more below.
The Icelandic post-rock legends are currently in the midst of their 2025 European tour performing with local orchestras. For their first of four nights in the capital, they took to the stage at the iconic Royal Albert Hall with London Contemporary Orchestra.
It was a lush and opulent yet soulful performance, emphasising the majesty of the venue while drawing across the band’s entire catalog but leaning heaviest on 2023’s acclaimed ‘ÁTTA’. With a pared-back stage show of lightbulbs to represent a celestial sky with the trio performing amongst the musicians as they traded instruments, the band led through a first set new album cut ‘Blóðberg’ before fan favourite ‘Valtari’ highlight ‘Ekki múkk’ in a first set that breathed with an elegant grace.
Returning for the second half, the latter section of the show gradually built towards the almighty closing crescendo of the first ever live performance of ‘Ára bátur’ from Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’ – made all the more heavenly by being joined by the Schola Cantorum choir of the Cardinal Vaughan School, along with Royal Albert Hall resident Anna Lapwood on the venue’s towering and classic pipe organ.
The choir and Lapwood remained on stage for the euphoric closing of ‘Hoppípolla’, with the organist also lending her performance to the epic finale of ‘Avalon’.
Sigur Rós’ Royal Albert Hall setlist was:
Set one:
‘Blóðberg’
‘Ekki múkk’
‘Fljótavík’
‘8’
‘Von’
‘Andvari’
‘Starálfur’
‘Dauðalogn’
‘Varðeldur’
Set Two:
‘Untitled #1 – Vaka’
‘Untitled #3 – Samskeyti’
‘Ylur’
‘Skel’
‘All Alright’
‘Untitled #5 – Álafoss’
‘Sé lest’
‘Ára bátur’ (with Anna Lapwood and the Cardinal Vaughn Memorial School choir)
‘Hoppípolla’ (with Anna Lapwood and the Cardinal Vaughn Memorial School choir)
‘Avalon’ (with Anna Lapwood)
Sigur Rós’ remaining UK and European orchestral tour dates are below. Visit here for tickets to the London dates and here for Europe.
OCTOBER
1 – Royal Albert Hall – London, UK
2 – Royal Albert Hall – London, UK
3 – Royal Albert Hall – London, UK
5 – Carré – Amsterdam, Netherlands
6 – Carré – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Last October, the trio followed ‘ÁTTA’ up with a special version of the record titled ‘ÁTTA Heimr Edition’.
In a four-star review of the original album, NME wrote that ‘ÁTTA’ is “a record that gives Sigur Rós plenty more reason to exist in adding some pure and natural soul to this cold and unfeeling world”.
The band also recently announced the 20th anniversary re-release of their 2005 breakthrough album ‘Takk‘.
The post Watch Sigur Rós play ‘Ára bátur’ live for the first time as they kick off orchestral residency at Royal Albert Hall appeared first on NME.