Sigur Rós are back with their first new music in quite a while, and the first to feature multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson since he left the band in 2012. This could potentially indicate the arrival of the first new album from the Icelandic favourites in 10 years.
The new song is called “Blóðberg” and finds them entirely stripping out all of the gung ho sounds they have sometimes been known for and focusing entirely on the orchestral. As strings sway and expands like light reflecting off water, Jónsi’s voices rises up and falls in alongside them, another magnificent instrument in the pack. It may be delicate, but “Blóðberg” is not skeletal; the silvery instrumental threads are pulled together to create a robust, enlivening sound.
The video for “Blóðberg” was created by Chernobyl director Johan Renck, who says: “I feel as nihilistic as one could regarding the future. We are powerless against our own stupidities. Some aspects of this came to merge with my impressions of the themes of ‘Blóðberg.’ The music becoming a score to my own miserable thoughts, giving them beauty as only music can.”
Watch the video for “Blóðberg” below or find the song on streamers.
