Ka Leo O Hawaii: UHM College Newspaper

Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: Mixed Plate

Media Credit: courtesy of Sigur Rós Members from this Icelandic band have names as unique as their album titles. Their new album, "Heima," was released this week in the U.S. and is available in most music stores.

The Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós released its dually-titled album "Hvarf-Heim" ("Haven-Home") on Nov. 6. It is a full studio work, rather than a double extended play album, combining a few unreleased songs (on "Hvarf") with acoustic re-releases of older material (on "Heim").

Consisting of only five songs, the "Hvarf" side of the album lacks the fullness of the band's earlier albums like "Takk...". Those albums truly function as unified works, with recurring musical themes woven through multiple tracks. However, as individual songs, the five on "Hvarf" are as utterly gorgeous as anything Sigur Rós has released to date.

"I Gaer," track three on "Hvarf," is one of the more interesting new releases and typifies the structure of a Sigur Rós song. The track opens with a soft, somewhat-spooky musical phrase on a glockenspiel. This is the musical sentence that repeats throughout the track.

About a minute in, the song ruptures into a slow, loud cymbal-saturated drum beat and moaning electric guitar. The guitar is Sigur Rós' signature, as it is played by lead singer Jónsi Birgisson with a cello bow. The sound produced - an unpunctuated, electric howl - is otherworldly and restlessly bifurcates into sad and euphoric phrases.

In typical Sigur Rós fashion, the rest of the "I Gaer" song works on adding and removing musical layers to articulate the emotion developed in the opening minute. The swelling and fading of noise throughout the track is fluid, minimally structured and potent.

Birgisson's androgynous falsetto vocals are unintelligible (the lyrics are combinations of Icelandic and "Hopelandic," a language invented by the band to circumvent the traditional process of translating feelings into words) and function as another instrument. The music is about expressing feeling as directly as possible. This seems like a working definition for profound art.

In an unconventional move, the band covers its own songs on "Heim" in acoustic renditions. This is a gutsy move because much of the Sigur Rós sound is deeply electric.

Understandably, these tracks are less aggressive than their original versions. Birgisson's guitar is replaced by traditional stringed instruments to preserve fluidity. Fortunately, the songs function well as subdued adaptations. Of these tracks, the acoustic version of "Von" is the best, as its sadness is amplified by its restraint.

If the "Hvarf-Heim" extended play feels incomplete compared to the 2005 masterpiece "Takk...", it's only because this album is not meant to mark Sigur Rós' 2007 artistic contribution. Rather, "Hvarf-Heim" is meant to introduce "Heima" ("At Home"), a documentary DVD scheduled for release on Nov. 20 about the band's free tour through rural Iceland.

The footage from the film's trailer is spectacular. The idea of a Sigur Rós film - adding images to sounds - is so appropriate that one must wonder how it hasn't happened before now. "Heima" may be the band's greatest work yet, and fans eagerly await its Nov. 20 release.

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