Sigur Ros - Hvarf / Heim (Dig)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Sigur RosEdition: Music CD
Audio: French (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-11-06
Music Label: Xl Recordings
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Salka
- Hljómalind
- Í Gær
- Von
- Hafsól
- Samskeyti
- Starálfur
- Vaka
- Ágætis Byrjun
- Heysátan
- Von
Free Music Notes for Hvarf / Heim (Dig)
Free Music Review: Icy White Noise : The Return of the Inuits
Hit: 5 Stars
First of all, Hvarf/Heim is not so much a follow-up as a detour. It offers 70 minutes of music spread over two CDs: the first featuring rerecordings of tracks from their 1994 debut album Von, plus outtakes, the second acoustic versions of better-known songs.
From "The Guardian" : "Despite its tangential nature, the first CD encapsulates both what's admirable and what's off-putting about Sigur Rós' music. There's Salka, which shows off both their way with a winding guitar melody and enviable capacity to sound simultaneously wistful and triumphant. Hafsól, meanwhile, demonstrates the band's ability to alight on a sound that's unfathomably appealing: in this case a drumstick being rattled against bass guitar strings, a noise that, improbably enough, turns out to have the same warm, comforting quality as the smell of freshly brewed coffee. But in the debit column, there is Í Gaer, which wobbles unsteadily along the line that separates winning grandiosity from hollow bombast, and the creeping feeling that for all their admirable sonic experimentation, there's often something slightly formulaic about the results.
For every moment you're carried along by a song's sweeping loveliness, there's an equivalent moment where you find yourself wondering if their sound isn't a little uniform for its own good: everything proceeds at the same pace, the vocals always wail, enveloped in reverb, you're never that far from a dramatic surge in volume or a string-augmented climax.
It's a feeling that the second disc does little to dispel. The tracks all seem to have been taped in deserted community halls in rural Iceland, or outdoors by fjords and waterfalls, but they're not quite as atmospheric as their intriguing recording locations suggest.
Indeed, most of the time, the acoustic versions don't actually sound that different to the originals. Ágtis Byrjun and the instrumental Samskeyti take on a marginally tweedier quality with their guitar effects replaced by a harmonium. The version of Von is a little less cavernous than its incarnation on CD1.
On Vaka, the experiment yields real dividends - with the echo stripped away, Birgisson's vocals take on an unexpected visceral intensity - but the rest sounds homogenous: like beautiful background music."
However, this is not a bad thing. As a double CD, this is perhaps the least accessible of the entire Sigur Ros catalog, simply because of the nature of the material. You can't really call this a 'proper' studio album. One thing is clear though - if you're into atmosphere, and if you own a really snappy sound system, this is the kind of album you should be buying.
Personally, albums such as this work for me because I have a personal relationship with my music over my headphones, and occassionally venture to play them on my music system as well. "Hvarf/Heim" sounds totally different on both my Ipod, and on my music system (I have the latest Philips home theater). I can't explain it. So if youre planning on buying the CD to rip it to your Ipod, or if you plan to just download the audio files, you're missing the big picture. This is big, sweeping mood music that should envelop a room.
Five Stars. Iceland has never sounded more inviting.
Hvarf / Heim (Dig) Poster
2007 release from the Icelandic outift comprised of two EPs. Hvarf translates appropriately as "disappeared", as its five tracks are studio recordings of lost songs from various points in the band's career. Heim or "home" consists of six live acoustic versions of songs from all four Sigur Ros's studio albums recorded in Iceland during the band's summer 2006 tour and early spring 2007. Limited edition double CD digipak (first pressing only).In Icelandic, the word "hvarf" means "disappeared," and the first five tracks of Sigur Rs's double CD set nearly did disappear, having remained unreleased until this collection. Fans will love new opportunities to enjoy the band's precious style--precious save for "I Gaer," which starts out like a music-box and builds to dramatic, Pink Floyd-esque guitar-rawk proportions. The inclusion of two specific tracks, "Von" (meaning "hope") and "Hafsol," will especially delight longtime SR fans; written and recorded during the group's infancy in 1995, these tracks became treasured live performances, having never been captured on disc as their expanded, evolved versions until now. The disc's second portion, "Heim" ("home") is a six-song acoustic set that shows Sigur Rs in a less grandiose, more delicate light. The original versions of each were spread throughout SR's four previous releases, and all six were captured live-to-disc when the band performed a unique tour comprising surprise concerts in settings ranging from deserted fish factories to darkened caves. (The tour has been released separately as an endearing DVD, a companion to this collection entitled Heima.) While totally acoustic, the songs remain full-bodied, lush and lovely, especially the former underground hit "gtis byrjun" and "Heystan," within which you?ll hear--if you listen closely--the sounds of chirping birds singing along with the orchestral instruments. --Denise Sheppard
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