Aural soundscapes. Used to be really into this sort of stuff... might be getting back into it. Riceboy Sleeps is a mixed media project related to the band Sigur Ros. Further reading. The above are from the upcoming album release (July 20, 2009).
Related note: amusing article from Andy Gill (who I have mentioned before, and here)at The Independent about the overuse of Sigur Ros' Hoppípolla. Excerpt below.
"Television is important in a way that the other charts, by their very nature, ignore: less concerned with immediacy, it can afford to ignore the rapidly changing tastes of a fickle industry like music, but employ the same piece of music over and over again, establishing it as the musical livery of a programme or strand, and confirming it as one of the emblematic musical signatures of its era. For the last year or two, it's been Sigur Rós's heavenly "Hoppípolla" that can't be avoided.
You've all heard it hundreds of times: that tentative piano figure cycling around and around, seeming to climb up and up expectantly like an MC Escher belvedere, until it finally reaches some emotional tipping-point and brims over, cascading in soul-lifting waves of fulfilment as strings and brass crowd round to hymn along.
It's become utterly ubiquitous since its release in 2005, as directors discovered how perfectly it seemed to suit all manner of situations, from baby whales being reunited with mommy whales on nature programmes, to some clueless pleb finally mastering a meaningless task on any of a hundred bogus reality-TV shows. Look! She's managed to run that half-marathon! Cue "Hoppípolla". See! The courting swans entwine their necks! Cue "Hoppípolla". Wow! He's not just conquered his fear of flying, he's enduring barrel-rolls! Cue "Hoppípolla". Gasp! It's the winning goal, in slow motion! Cue "Hoppípolla". And so on."
Full article here.
