Sigur Rós – ÁTTA

Has it really been so long…? Pre-match hype bills ‘ÁTTA’ as the first new album from Sigur Rós in almost a decade, and a quick check on streaming reveals that’s absolutely correct. The longest gap in their career, ‘ÁTTA’ picking up where they left off, producing works outstanding beauty – slow of pace, yet rich in feeling; deftly experimental yet also daringly melodic.

For those familiar to the band’s work, the album presents something of an oasis of calm. Songs are allowed to stretch out and recede, built by frontman Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm, joined by returning collaborator Kjartan Sveinsson. Opener ‘Glóð’ is like a sound bath, a near-ambient piece where formlessness becomes the form itself. The seven-minute ‘Blóðberg’ is more defined, it’s twinkling late-night beauty recalling John Martyn’s ‘Small Hours’, say.

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At times, the sounds can become focussed, almost brittle. ‘Klettur’ moves and more to higher degrees of intensity, Jonsi’s keening vocal lost in a mesh of sound. But then – suddenly – it loses momentum, brought back down to Earth by emotional inertia. The striking arrangement from the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames has a curiously industrial feel, reminiscent of those Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross scores but in a completely different context.

‘Mór’ dwells in hushed neo-classical atmospherics, while the intensely moving ‘Andrá’ scarcely moves above a whisper. ‘Gold’ is more defined, more song-like in a traditional sense; recalling their work on ‘Heima’, it carries something very organic within its soul. ‘Fall’ – the shortest song on the record – is one of the more immediate moments, the piano notes feeling ripe for cinematic use. Indeed, Sigur Ros’ world-building abilities haven’t been dulled by a decade of group inactivity – each moment is laden with colour, and mood. 

The album closes with the remarkable nine-minute odyssey ‘8’, a meandering yet quietly emphatic piece, one that dares to utilise silence as an instrument in itself. It’s sense of subtle daring seems to epitomise both the album as a whole and the band themselves – Sigur Rós are back, and few can match them.

8/10

Words: Robin Murray