Released: 1997

Von (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈvɔːn], Hope) is the debut album of Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós released in 1997. Von was originally released in Iceland to moderate critical acclaim, but went relatively unnoticed abroad. In the first year following the release, Von sold only 313 copies in Iceland. In December 2005, Von and Ágætis byrjun were declared platinum albums in Iceland, signifying domestic sales of over 5,000. The production of the album took a long time, and the end result sounded significantly different from the original recordings. The band considered scrapping the final result and starting all over again, but decided not to because it would have made the process too long. In exchange for recording time, Sigur Rós painted the studio they recorded in. The sixth track (18 sekúndur fyrir sólarupprás) consists of 18 seconds of silence, and gave name to Sigur Rós's official website, eighteen seconds before sunrise. The last track starts with six minutes and fifteen seconds of silence, then consists of a portion of Myrkur played backwards, hence the name of Rukrym. The cover depicts Jónsi's sister Inga Birgisdóttir as a baby. Read more on Last.fm.