Extra Terrestrial

The second Sigur Ros album "Agaetis Byrjun" offers fascinating soundscapes that are difficult to describe or to categorize.
At first hearing affects the band's music, which is composed of a guitarist and singer, a bassist, a keyboardist and a drummer, very experimental.
The interwoven, mysterious soundscapes, the enormous length of the pieces, the use of the Icelandic language in conjunction with the very feminine acting voice of the singer, all of this affects the "mainstream listeners' first exotic and somehow not from this world.
This is exactly the atmosphere that is generated in the one hand, gloomy, but on the other hand a lot of heat radiating compositions. One feels at least on the lonely North Sea, if not offset even in the endless vastness of space - should this music so especially at night enjoy in bed; I would even recommend that you never heard in daylight, which counteracts the flair of the plate.
But all these unusual attributes deceive superficial observation easily hide the fact that they are pieces with a catchy, even very simple and well-traceable song structure in the compositions of the genius Icelanders. Redundant chord progressions and concise melody lines mark the music as well as the elaborate and magnificent, complex arrangements acting.
The sound of the album is unique: Over all always hovers a mysterious noise, like the wind or the sea.
Furthermore produce organ-like sounds often the basic sound of the song, accompanied by a powerful bass and a most discreet jazzy, in the right places but also brutally slamming drum sound. But the hammer is played with a cello bow electric guitar; this more than successful sound experiment runs as a stylistic device by the majority of the songs. The sound thus produced is like a massive wall of sound, somewhere, always used between electric bass and distorted electric guitar with elongated tones, an E-Bow sound resembling and powerful and gripping than the brilliant feedback from Peter Buck.
For the delicate moments ensure the good old piano and a string section. However, the latter also provides like to be for exciting, loud moments.
It becomes clear after a few Hördurchläufen that "Agaetis Byrjun" is a work of art, which is equipped with the famous red thread and wherein the solid album context, top priority:
The whole thing starts with a backwards played part of the title track, which quickly into the mysterious chords of the first song "Svefn g-englar" passes, which is the scariest track of the disc, if only because of the very catchy vocal melody ...
It follows the most striking piece of "Staralfur" which completely based on a string motif and contains very beautiful melodies in vocal and instrumental passages.
In "Fluglufrelsarinn" is a relatively "music in pop style" piece, which consists of verses and choruses, and its charm is perhaps open up the fastest, especially when one is accustomed to other sounds.
"Ny Batteri", however, offers very dark and interwoven vocals and very simple constructed, but equally powerful, brutal drum kicks.
This piece, together with "Hjarto hamast" the most disturbing song of the plate. For the latter to give a rather jazzy riff acting, is placed over the most eerie, wailing vocals, and a floating high above the earth, anthemic chorus the jack in hand.
The song ends with a noise that could perhaps represent the Big Bang or a supernova akustsich.
If you have opened up the CD, all of these at first sight very unusual acting style means engage each other so that you can keep the music only for a perfect work of art.
Perhaps the most beautiful pieces are "Vidlář vel til loftarasa" and "Olsen Olsen"; two songs that are marked by wonderful, warm melodies and were her so created by the Arrangement that they are full of tension and slowly approaching a climax at which explodes the whole energy of the leitmotifs and the listener a shiver down my spine running.
The final make dominated by piano and acoustic guitar, relatively "normal" sounding title track and the song "Avalon", which is nothing but an infinitely slow-played instrumental excerpt from "Staralfur".
Music from another world, even from another dimension!
Really? Perhaps their impact ago, their style is, however, well understood! Sigur Ros - more than an insider tip from the wonderful high rough north!