Music: Jonsi, of Sigur Ros, reflects on singing solo, in English

VOLCANIC SOOT isn't the only hot thing that's been blowing out of Iceland of late. Beating the storm out of Reykjavík (luckily) was the grandly ambitious and eccentric singer/composer known as Jonsi (Jon Por Birgisson) of the popular post-rock band Sigur Ros, to perform music from his first solo album, "Go," in a lavishly theatrical, mixed-media production at the Electric Factory Monday.

If you already know and relish the wintry, ambient-style soundscapes of Sigur Ros, you'll be surprised, pleasantly, by the turns of "Go." While still oozing keyboard-centric neoclassicism, Jonsi's solo stuff often leaps beyond the dark, atmospheric nature of Sigur Ros into a more pop percolating light scored with horns, woodwinds, strings and, especially, dynamic percussion.

Also a switch, the guy is singing, not in Icelandic or his made up, equally otherworldly language of Hopelandic, but for the first time in English. Ironically, it's still hard at times to understand the guy through his accent, with verbal images floating in and out of focus. Yet there's no missing the hopeful emotion in Jonsi's "burning bright . . . . into the light" words and pliant, verging on operatic, high-pitched vocals. Oh, and in conversation, the guy does comes through loud and clear, I learned in a recent phone chat.

Q: I hear this album was a long time in the making. Can you talk about that? Yeah, 10, 15 years. I've been writing these songs for a long time. When we come together as Sigur Ros we write together from scratch. And other people contribute songs. So I have a lot of songs left over that I've been writing at home.

Jonsi:

I have this weird filing system in my head. I file my songs in different filters in my brain. This project started out to be a small, intimate, acoustic album with songs I'd written on guitar, piano, and harmonium. But then I got involved with a lot of talented people like Nico [Muhly], who did all the string, brass and woodwind arrangements and plays piano and kind of wanted to go in different ways, adding playfulness and color.

My wonderful percussionist, Samuli Kosminen, also added a lot, making the music more rhythmic, more schizophrenic, not always so dreamy. When you take yourself out of this small, safe cocoon that is Sigur Ros and have to do things yourself it is a little scary, but also liberating.

Q: I understand that timing and circumstances, also played into this solo project, correct? Last year everybody in the Sigur Ros band but me had babies. So it was a good time for them to take off and for me to do this. This is my baby.

A:

Q: There's a video documentary posted online about the stage show [http://vimeo.com/9646382], and the production looks amazing. I heard that you ran into a problem at the first show in Canada, though, that the team couldn't get it up in time. And what's this about the show being set in a burned-out taxidermist's office? Was that meant as a comment from your perspective as a strict raw vegetarian? We did have a problem with the first show in Vancouver, but it was because the promoter had booked two shows for the same night. Until now, we've had an amazingly hardworking crew that is really on the ball. It's been perfect. I'm really proud of how amazing it looks. I've never had such a good, choreographed show in the way the lighting and animation work.

A:

The first basic idea was to have the set look like a burned-down taxidermist's. But I didn't like the idea of having stuffed animals on stage with me. There are animals, but now they're moving, alive, in the projected images.

Q: How was it writing lyrics in English for you? Do you think fans are taking to it? One of your colleagues in Sigur Ros said you're "blowing the air of mystery" by doing this. It's totally different, a very good experiment for me. I learned a lot. 99.99 percent of the world's population listening to this music doesn't understand Icelandic, so what we're singing is always clouded in mystery. But when I sing in English, they can still interpret their own way, I think.

A:

My vocabulary in English is more limited, but my boyfriend Alex [Somers, who also plays keyboards in the band and collaborated last year with Jonsi on the instrumental album "Riceboy Sleeps"] is American. So now I speak more English at home than Icelandic, truthfully, and it's getting better.

Q: How did you develop your amazing vocal range, especially the high end? Were you trained, maybe, in opera? No one ever studied anything. I just started when I was 13. There was no one else to sing in the band, so I started singing. I never looked at myself as a singer. The more the years pass by, the more confident you get. You get stronger, your pitch gets better, the throat muscles get bigger.

A:

After we'd been playing for a year, I started singing in falsetto. I found I could control my voice better in that range. Now I'm going the other direction, slowly moving down.

Electric Factory, 7th and Willow streets, 8 p.m. Monday, $30 (all ages), 800-745-3000, www.livenation.com.