Only Connect: Sigur Rós
April 26th, 2002 by freddie96
Sigur Rós, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson & Steindór Andersen
Live @ Only Connect
The Barbican, London
Sunday 21st April 2002
You know the story: unknown band wins Mercury Prize and spends years trying to relight the creative fires all the publicity ignited. So when Icelandic beyond-genre group Sigur Rós won an inaugural US equivalent, the clumsily-named Virgin Megastore Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement, it was only natural for the worst to be feared. Thankfully it appears that being from, and still living in, the relative isolation of Iceland has ensured that they continue to forge their unique musical paths.
This performance – entitled Odin’s Magic Raven – was in no way a Sigur Rós gig. It was instead a meeting of equal collaborators to create a special concert. The music was composed by the members of Sigur Rós along with the highly-respected film composer and ex-Psychic TV keyboard player Hilmar Örn Hilmarrsson, with whom they had worked on the score of the film ‘Angels of the Universe’. Providing vocals was one of Iceland’s foremost traditional singers – Steindór Andersen, the mountain of a man who made such an impact when he toured last year with them. And joining them was the London Sinfonietta as well as members of the Sixteen choir, all of whom demonstrated a complete professionalism and musicality it is easy to take for granted.
The inspiration and source of the wholly Icelandic lyrics for their 75-minute long piece is one part of the Nordic myths written between the 11th and 13th century, called the Edda. It focussed in particular on those myths concerning the great sky god Odin, who was loud, unreliable, magical, completely full of himself and could shapeshift himself into being a raven, that messenger of the spiritual world in Norse mythology. Hence the raven shapes sinisterly hanging around the building on the night were the focus of the video accompaniment adding to the heavy foreboding that underlined the beginning of the piece.
Drawn-out strings and horns built a tactile sound wall on top of which floated the chorus, sounding like sad angels of all ages. Then Steindór Andersen stood up to tell the tale with a deep-pitched voice of blood and thunder that left you in no doubt that this was no sweet fairy tale being recounted. And where were Iceland’s finest post-rockers? Well, at first they were mostly sitting back absorbing the power of the sonic emotion like the rest of the audience, contributing a bow guitar backwash here, analogue electronics there, and some rhythmic drive from the drum kit when required.
After the first section, however, they lined up behind their principal instrument for the evening – something that had been specially built for this composition. The band called it their ‘4-metre long stone harp’, though more accurately it should have been termed a marimba made from 54 virgin stones. All the riffing of the evening was done on this proud beast of an instrument rather than on guitars, which spent most of their time on stage sitting on their stands. If you can imagine what bells might sound like in a spirit world – above or below us – and you might just hear in your mind’s ear the sound of the stone harp being played by up to five pairs of hands…
Appropriately for an ancient tale, the music progressed as a cycle, themes and passages repeating themselves to make at least six separate songs, with minimalist music techniques applied to grand complex orchestration. Each employed different colours and tones – and this is where the band members made their biggest contribution, creating soundscapes behind the orchestra and singers. For these, they used 21st-century sounds and rhythms built on a lap top from clicks and beats, as well as their famed, falsetto vocals and e-bowed guitars and stadium-heavy drums.
All this built strongly towards a finale where the instruments were all unleashed creating a storm of power to match and go beyond that which had gone before. It was loud, but not at the expense of subtlety or being able to hear the contribution each person on stage was making to this wrath of the god’s ending. And then it stopped. Any more music and the accusations of pretentiousness would have stuck… any less and the build-up would have been too rushed and the tension too forced. All in all an extraordinary performance.
Gidon Z Cohen
Footnote: Although Sigur Rós will be playing many of the big festivals around Europe this summer, these are the worst places to see them live. Their music is that of cathedrals, empty landscapes and dark crevices, not that of fields, advertising hoardings and sunlight chit-chat.
More about Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and other Icelandic musicians can be found on the BBC Radio 3 Mixing It website: www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/mixingiticeland2.shtml
