Om Shanti: A Yoga Blog

If you haven’t yet been introduced to the mysterious Icelandic sounds of Sigur Ros, you’re really missing out. Their music is often described as “post-rock” (like much of the other music I like to listen to while doing yoga), which roughly translates into something like “complex, contemporary, strange-sounding music that doesn’t fit nicely into any other category”.

I find Sigur Ros to be perfect for yoga because, well, I can’t understand a single word in any of their songs. The lead singer, Jonsi, sings in Icelandic as well as a made-up language called Hopelandic (basically gibberish), neither of which is intelligible to me. This is perfect because lyrics have a tendency to be very distracting during a yoga practice. Personally, I like to use music to set a mood, and Sigur Ros is really perfect for that.

When I try to describe Sigur Ros’ music to people, I usually tell them to imagine going on a month-long trek deep into the frozen wilderness of Iceland and stumbling upon some ancient tribe of musicians living at the bottom of some dark crevice in the side of a mountain. The music you would hear coming out of that crevice would almost certainly be Sigur Ros. But really, I can’t do justice to their music by describing it in words. You’ll just have to listen for yourself.

If you’re trying out Sigur Ros of the first time, I recommend starting with either Agaetis byrjun or ( ). You won’t be disappointed.