Valtari

◎悠游在梦境与现实之间的冰岛首席后摇天团，第六张全新官方大碟 ◎多人编制合唱团与主唱空灵嗓音相互烘托交缠，带来最单纯净粹的哀愁与迷醉 ◎串连现在、过去与未来，以精雕细琢取代随兴所至的摇滚Ambient巨作 本张专辑《Valtari》不论是对「席格若斯乐团Sigur Ros」本身，或对其广大的乐迷朋友而言，都是一次惊人能量的积蓄与抒发。继2008年大碟作品《Mee sue i eyrum vie spilum endalaust》发表后，这组来自冰岛的后摇滚天团，就进入一段长达四年的沉潜阶段。然而主唱Jonsi却马不停蹄地深耕个人事业，他先与Alex Somers联名推出广受乐评推崇的音乐作品《Riceboy Sleeps》，2010年他更趁胜追击，顺势推出个人首张单飞专辑《Go》，展现他热情外放的另一面。Jonsi为电影【We Bought A Zoo】一手打造的配乐专辑紧接着在来年问世，同年年底Sigur Ros发表了集结过去珍贵影像纪录、演唱会盛况的影音概念专辑《Inni》，一解歌迷们早已泛滥成灾的思念之情。 不过真正让乐迷期待的，是乐队第六张官方大碟《Valtari》，藉此Sigur Ros完成多年来的心愿，一张串连过去、现在与未来的作品终于正式与大家见面。这张总长约54分钟，总共收录八首歌曲的大碟作品，带领乐队走向一条不同以往的道路。〈Dauealogn〉与〈Vareeldur〉这两首歌曲，是2005年〈Takk...〉录制期间便具雏形的两首创作；〈Rembihnutur〉、〈Fjogur piano〉与〈Valtari〉等三首作品虽然是《Mee sue i eyrum vie spilum endalaust》时期的创作，但是却展现出完全不同的音乐性格，这是因为录制方式不同所导致的结果。上张专辑他们采取随兴live演奏的方式进行录音工作，这次则慢工出细活，在细节上专注琢磨，加入更多电子元素。 《Valtari》不是东拼西凑的成果，而是Sigur Ros历年来最沉稳自省的专辑。多人编制的合唱团，与主唱Jonsi独树一格的嗓音相互烘托，交织出一场跨越现在、过去与未来的梦境，那无所不在的喃喃呓语，不仅让时间悄然凝结，也让哀伤忧愁显得异常纯净。贝斯手Georg Holm为这张专辑下了如下批注：「我们早忘了，当初录制这张专辑的动机，一切都是自然发展，最后水到渠成。它是唯一一张在完工后，我还会坐在家中聆听享受的专辑作品。」 Sigur Rós Valtari New album released on 28th May 2012 on Parlophone Sigur Rós will return with their sixth studio album, Valtari, on 28th May. The first track from Valtari, entitled ‘Ekki Múkk’, is now streaming on the band’s website – www.sigurros.com. Valtari will be released on double LP, CD and digital download. Valtari is Sigur Rós’s first studio album since 2008’s acclaimed Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, marking the end of their indefinite hiatus. It is either the album they always wanted to make, or the album they almost didn’t make, depending on how you look at it. Taken together, the eight songs on this 54-minute album feel like an alternative musical path the band didn’t take after 2002’s untitled ( ) album. Frequently bereft of formal structures, and for large stretches of time more atmospheres than songs, the work – which the band have described as sounding “like an avalanche in slow motion” – offers a counterpoint to Sigur Rós’s steady yet unconscious migration towards public acceptance (either via ‘sound-bed’ ubiquity or use as emotional shorthand in this or that movie.) In English, Valtari translates as “steamroller,” and there is something right about the title in terms of the process of its creation. In 2011, the band, alongside mixer Alex Somers, started the painstaking forensic task of piecing together a cohesive and magical work from disparate constituent parts. If this sounds unromantic, the results are anything but. Something alchemical occurs when the four members of Sigur Rós are in the room together, and while Valtari is a more “studio based” album than any of its predecessors (which usually start life as rehearsal room jams), the long hours of experimentation and unsentimental editing have yielded incredible results. Certain songs on the album have roots in earlier times. ‘Dauðalogn’ and ‘Varðeldur’ emerged out of sessions on the back of Takk… but the choral ideas behind them stem from as far back as 2002 and an orchestral collaboration with the 16 Choir; 2009 sessions in the wake of the last album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, threw up some individually beautiful moments - of which three, ‘Rembihnútur’, ‘Fjögur piano’ and ‘Valtari’, live here - but it was hard to draw a line between them, and the band found focusing on such elusive music hard to do for any sustained period. And so, they essentially put the record on hold. In 2010, singer Jónsi went off to make, and then tour, his expansive, critically-acclaimed solo album Go, while keyboardist Kjartan spent time on his classically-inclined, unreleased work, ‘Credo’. Time slipped by. But then a film scoring opportunity led to the creation of the towering and majestic ‘Varúð’, arguably the record’s centerpiece; and shortly thereafter, scouting around for a closing credit song for last year’s live film, Inni, the band unearthed ‘Lúppulagið’, which in its reworked choral form is here titled ‘Varðeldur’, one of the album’s most understated and elegant songs. And slowly, what had seemed like a collection of isolated-but-interesting recordings, for the first time felt like the viable way towards a strangely cohesive body of work. But the process of making Valtari, and the powerfully pleasing end results, are perhaps best described by bassist Georg Holm: “I really can’t remember why we started this record, I no longer know what we were trying to do back then. I do know session after session went pear-shaped, we lost focus and almost gave up...did give up for a while. But then something happened and form started to emerge, and now I can honestly say that it’s the only Sigur Rós record I have listened to for pleasure in my own house after we’ve finished it.”