Ten years after the welcome return to post-rock roots of KveikurSigur Rós launches this ATTA (“eight” in Icelandic) which the members describe as the most introspective of their discography. Let’s say: the smoothest. The virtual absence of battery is felt. Where are the angry electric guitars that gave so much relief to the band’s best albums?ATTA responds to the warlike air of the weather by serving as a shelter in which the listener takes refuge when the storms roar. The violins of the London Contemporary Orchestra house Jónsi’s voice and flatten the melodies to reveal only easy harmonic progressions. The pastoral effect seduces in the first fifteen minutes of the album, the undulatory movement of the violins during Bloðberg possessing an undeniable force, its ambient counterpoint Skel nicely concluding the first movement. The sequel wearies as we look, in vain, for the violent and magnificent contrasts between the orchestral colors and the rage of the rock group that was once Sigur Rós.
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