in 2000 i inter-railed. i met an austrian girl in stockholms main train station as i was finishing up my few weeks. i told her about sigur rós and we swapped email addresses. a while later when sigur rós played in vienna the concert was recorded by austrian radio and broadcast. she taped it off the radio and sent the tape to me. as an introduction to the concert there was a simple piece of music played over the pa system. it was “für alina” by the estonian composer arvo pärt.

at one stage in this piece there was a noise by an audience member – i listened to it many many times trying to see if it was what i thought it was – a baby crying. so here i am now almost seven years later listening to the same song (this time a proper version) and i miss that little baby, keep expecting it to interrupt the delicate silence between the notes of the piano.