Sigur Rós

Iceland's Sigur Rós is not so much a band as an imagined principality, located in the most spectacular realms of rock's sonic landscape. Led by Jónsi Birgisson — who plays his guitar with a cello bow, sometimes sings in an invented language he calls Hopelandic, and has a falsetto best described as "unearthly" — the outfit broke through with 1999's Ágætis Byrjun, featuring the enchanting "Starálfur," which was picked out by Wes Anderson for the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. During the mid-'00s, Sigur Rós grazed the mainstream with "Hoppípolla."

Continued to be hypnotized by our Sigur Rós Next Steps.

Convention has little bearing on the unique Sigur Rós picture, but 2005's Takk… comes the closest to accepted rock album structures (check out wraith-like ballad "Andvari"). Elsewhere, "Í Gær" from Hvarf/Heim has the lightness of a memory until it crashes down with the weight of mountains; "Ti Ki" (2004) tinkles like the softest of instrumental lullabies; "Flugufrelsarinn" raises walls of insurmountable sound, only to have them dissolve into thin air like smoke; and "Go Do" is the mesmerizing lead track on frontman Jónsi's 2010 debut solo album Go.

Named after singer Jónsi Birgisson's younger sister, born on the same day the band was formed, Sigur Rós has established itself as one of the strangest and most enchanting bands on the planet. From their home base in Iceland, the four-strong phenomenon has picked up the loftier aspirations of the shoegaze faction and — by craft and inspiration — carried them to higher ground. Radiohead helped "discover" the outfit and toured with them back in 2000. If you're new to these incredible soundsmiths, you'll get a sense of what to expect from the production methods used on BA BA TI KI DI DO, the instrumentals written for New York's Merce Cunningham Dance Company, on which suspended ballet shoes were wired to microphones and used as percussion. Go, explore, in awe.