MARC CHOQUETTE
Online Content Manager
It’s fitting that a band as unique as Sigur Ros would come from a place as unique as Iceland. Their symphonic, sweeping, ethereal sound has always flowed like the lava that continues to shape the island, and their sound is often as desolate and spacious as the vast landscapes of blackened rock.
Few bands have the ability to release a compilation of songs that did not quite make the cut for previous albums and still receive acclaim without it being written off as money grab or nostalgic push.
Few bands even have a decent collection of recorded material that was never released in the first place. Sigur Ros is the exclusion.
Sigur Ros’ latest double album, “Hvarf-Heim,” goes above and beyond the bar set for a CD of extras and unreleased tracks. It blends some of its harder, rougher fringes of rock with exploratory trips into some sort of symphonic heaven — the one where it is always best to wear the biggest, most hi-fidelity headphones possible.
Formed in Iceland’s capital of Reykjavik in 1994, the band has steadily gained notoriety throughout the world, although it took awhile — as one would imagine for a band coming from such a remote place.
Their name was formed due to coincidentally falling on the same day of the birth of lead singer Jonsi’s sister, Sigur Ros. Such a practice is one of many clues that indicate the themes of the band closely revolve around family and perseverance.
While all of the lyrics are in Icelandic, translations of various song titles in the album help clue in listeners. “Von,” the ultimate of salacious symphonic masterpieces, means “Hope.” “Vakka” is named after band member Orri’s daughter.
Lead singer Jonsi’s signature falsetto lyrics are a mainstay on many of the songs, although, on harder songs such as “I Gaer” (Yesterday), the vocals are less drawn out and more succinct. But in some songs (“Salka”), his falsetto shows its true depth, reaching great proportions when it seems that nothing could match the intensity of the backing symphony.
With a sort of “perfect storm” of progressive, classical, experimental, indie and minimalist characteristics in their sound, it is no wonder that Sigur Ros has been looked to as one of the most talented new artists to surface in recent times.
It has widely been noted that Radiohead counted the band’s style on their 1999 breakout album “Agaetis Byrjun” (“A Good Beginning,” ironically enough) as an influence in the making of their own experimental album: 2000’s “Kid A.” Sigur Ros even got to open shows for Thom Yorke, et al, around the same time period.
Perhaps that album’s most memorable song, the moving “Staralful,” is also included in the second disc in a still electrifying, intimate and heart stopping live version. Used liberally in film and television, most notably “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” the raved album soon propelled them to world notoriety overnight.
And Sigur Ros has not looked back. As it is said, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and the boys from Iceland have been perfecting their sound to a point where it hardly matters what type of a release it is.
“Hvarf-Heim” is Sigur Ros at its best, just make sure to save it for a quiet night by the fireplace.
11-15-2007
