So I had to wait 8 years, since Loveless (My Bloody Valentine) to take me such a slap in listening to such an innovative cake and also charged with emotions! So yes, of course, if I had to devote myself to the usual exercise of rock columnist (you know, it looks like that thing with a pinch of contraption), I would stress to say there has some similarities with Kid A Radiohead or Björk's world, few atmospheres vaguely reminiscent of the years Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon, some flute sounds and violin sometimes bringing us back to Nick Drake arrangements, or even some passages like some Titles groups from the Shoegazing (Ride at random) or post-rock (Mogwai, Godspeed) or other Icelandic formations (Mum, for example). But overall, the attempt is rather pointless, because there it frankly looks like nothing! The loss of reference for the discerning rock star is considerable: ten songs and vaporous air, sometimes symphonic, take us in countries totally blank. Listening to Agaetis Byrjun, we do not know if it swims away in the depths of the sea whales company, where many on the edge of the crater of a volcano, or outright in the air by overlooking the large Skjálfandi fjord. Mixing fire, ice and oxygen. Even doubt regarding voice: is it a man, a woman, an angel? Probably an alien. An alien song, the elegiac accents, mixing whale cries, sirens complaints, hermit islander moans. Other sights include how to play the singer with a bow and this very personal language (incomprehensible). Besides the unusual length of the pieces, and the structure of unconventional pieces. Despite a veneer pop underlies most of these titles (guessed after several listenings), the format of none is compatible with what there is instead of calling a radio single. There is a spiritual dimension or even religious and mystical in this disc. The result is outstanding, the mesmerizing and spectacular drive, emotionally destabilizing and extremely stimulating to the senses if we accept the effort of active listening.
