nonseng

Bedok MRT Station, Singapore / Lomo LC-A / 2005

Despite not understanding any of Sigur Ros' songs, Heysatan (from Hvarf-Heim, 2007) tops it all. I first heard it while letting Heima play on Google video. It was difficult to name it at first and I had to load the first half of Heima (45 mins) every time I wanted to listen to this "song on a barn with statues of animals and human beings".

The sound scape of Heysatan is spectacular that it's almost surreal to be listening to it while stuck in a jam on Tun Razak. One should be in an open field with a big bonfire, watching the Northern Lights while listening to this. The sight of Pekeliling flats isn't so sexy lah, you know?

Anyway, like most of their songs, no one (excluding Bjork) knows what they're singing. They apparently sing in Vonlenska, a term to describe the gibberish nonsengs sung by Sigur Ros. Meaningless syllables, word meaning and inconsistent grammar structures are repeated throughout many times throughout each song.

But people do try to make sense of their music. For example, I had asked a friend what Birgisson was singing in one of their song.

"I sigh alone," said my friend. I percaya like for the longest time that particular song's chorus was "I sigh alone, I sigh alone."

So when the Sigur Ros bug bit me, I Googled 'I Sigh Alone Sigur Ros' in hope of finding the song. Nothing came out.

I smsed my friend:

'You liar. Where got Sigur Ros song 'I Sigh Alone'!'

He replied:

'I was joking lah. How would I know what they're singing but it sounds like it, no?'

It does! With dreamy, depressing, bleak, quiet sound scape, it's not that hard to think they're singing about life in the cold and grey Iceland. Somehow I imagine there'd be a lot of sighing going on there. Haha.

So when it came to Heysatan, I read the translation and it was about haystack and tractors! Then I found someone's comment on the thread that best describes how I feel about reading translations:


Heh.

Listening to: Heysatan by Sigur Ros