Synopsis
A man and woman move through a dreamlike relationship caught between intimacy, desire, violence, and dependency. Their connection repeatedly shifts from tenderness to conflict as they encounter strange forces, surreal objects, and symbolic spaces. Dance becomes the primary language of their changing bond, while butterflies, candy-colored imagery, and moments of exposure suggest beauty, temptation, and decay. Rather than following a conventional narrative, the video loops through emotional states, presenting love as something both intoxicating and difficult to escape.
Factoids & Trivia
- "Fjogur Piano" premiered on June 18, 2012, as part of Sigur Ros' Valtari Mystery Film Experiment, a project that gave participating filmmakers a $10,000 budget and no conventional band approval process.
- Shia LaBeouf contacted the filmmaker after watching the documentary "Bombay Beach." He later volunteered for the Sigur Ros project, and the video's treatment was written in about a week.
- LaBeouf had never danced before working on the video. During the first rehearsal, he began adding his own movements to the choreography.
- The nudity was not part of the original plan. The performers initially considered appearing in underwear, but decided during the preparation that full nudity better suited the material.
- Sigur Ros created the song by having each band member record a piano part separately while listening to a loop. The loop was later removed, leaving the finished track as a series of responses to music the audience never hears.
- The butterflies were intended to suggest beautiful, perfect things that die quickly, according to the video's creative concept.
- Choreographer Ryan Heffington, who had also worked with the filmmaker on "Bombay Beach," appears in the video as one of the forces affecting the couple.
- The video was the third installment of the Valtari film project and became one of the album's most widely discussed visual works, partly because of its erotic imagery and LaBeouf's unexpected vulnerability.