Untitled #1 (aka Vaka) is the first track of 2002 Sigur Rós’ album (), the third full-length album from the Icelandic band, and has been released as a single and DVD in 2003.The music video Untitled #1 produced in 2003 and accompanying the single won the 2003 MTV European Music Awards as Best Video in Edinburgh, Scotland. Directed by the Italo-Canadian filmmaker Floria Sigismondi, Untitled #1 shows a group of children playing in a post-nuclear wasteland:

Sigur Rós – Untitled #1 (aka Vaka) from sigur rós on Vimeo.

Sigur Rós ethereal music, as usual, seems to be coming from another world or another dimension and the way their music, the slow-motion images, the setting (a school and a post-apocalyptic playground), the photography and the use of colour (full of the black and grey of the nuclear ashes and of the red of the sky), the costumes (iconic gas masks), and the plot all blend in the video is amazing.

An interesting analogy between untitled #1 (Vaka) and the post 9/11 state of mind is mentioned on slantmagazine.com: “Disease (and dis-ease) is rampant in this post-apocalyptic future where ash falls like snow from scorched skies, and peace, like a white dove shown decaying on the ground, is dead“.

The last images are difficult to forget: Untitled #1 is haunting, deeply disturbing and conveys an infinite sadness.