Unexpected news for fans of Sigur Ros: the Icelandic formation launches its first album of new compositions in 10 years on Friday.
Entitled ATTA, the disc has 10 tracks on which Jonsi poses in a high-pitched voice words in his invented language. This new disc looks quite different from the powerful Kveikurpublished in June 2013, two months after an amazing concert at the Bell Centre.
ATTA is described as the group’s most “intimate” album to date, which tends to confirm Blooberg, the only track unveiled to date. Kjartan Sveinsson (various instruments), who left Sigur Ros in 2012, is back with Jonsi (vocals and guitar) and Georg Holm (bass).
The aesthetics of this new album promises to be less rock – or rather post-rock – than what the Icelanders have accustomed their audience to. ATTA was recorded with the assistance of the London Contemporary Orchestra, a brass ensemble and set, announces the group, on very orchestral arrangements.
The piece Blooberg suggests that there is a certain kinship between Sigur Ros’s next record and Riceboy Sleepsa parallel project led by Jonsi and Alex Somers, which the two composers came to present on stage in the fall of 2019 at Place des Arts.