VALTARI

Items ordered by ending time | Showing all 50 items

Visit eBay search:'prog rock' for items
Sell your SIGUR ROS items on eBay !

No release results - showing artist results instead

Sort: Recent best-seller | Results cached

Visit Amazon tag:'Progressive Rock' for more prog rock

No reviews? That's just ludicrous, as this album should be one of the most anticipated return-to-form records out there right now simply because Sigur Ros promised it. They also achieved it which is all the more reason to get this record.

Ambiance has always been a strong part of Sigur Ros' music, that's one of the main forces behind their music, such atmospheric and emotionally drenched piano and guitar playing matched with the ambiance Jonsi's vocals naturally provide. But with Valtari, every square inch of the album is ambiance and it benefits so much from it. There are still the pieces that wind up and crash down but now there's a much more ambient base to them. One reviewer on another site suggest you listen to "Ekki Mukk" while watching an avalanche in slow-motion and that was spot on. That track and the others have that epicness to them which has made Sigur Ros such a great band from an emotional standpoint but now the ambiance gives them an altogether personal touch which they had flirted at but never achieved.

A return to form, and much more, Sigur Ros is back with Valtari and album which may prove better than even Agaetis Byrjun with repeated listens.

After a four-year hiatus the ethereal post-rockers of Sigur Rós are back, with a belated studio album that doesn't reaffirm their unique style so much as embalm it under a thick glaze of ambient formaldehyde. "Floaty and minimal", was how front-man Jónsí Birgisson described the music in a pre-release press statement; fans may be left wondering where he stashed the guitars and drums.

In retrospect their previous, more accessible 2008 album "Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust" was a not unpleasant detour, showing a warmer side to the normally arctic dirge rock formula all but patented by the band on earlier efforts. The new album charts a more familiar course, but it's less a return to form than a total retreat to some sort of electronic pre-natal womb, reducing the classic sound of Sigur Rós to its barest and most basic essentials.

Expect a surplus of atmospheric textures, some lush amniotic string arrangements, and of course that otherworldly falsetto voice crooning in a language almost but not quite Icelandic. The entire album is lovely beyond words, but not a single minute of it will surprise anyone schooled in post-Eno soundscape design. Jónsí himself already staked out very similar territory in his own 2009 album "Riceboy Sleeps", and this effort likewise resembles a glorified solo project.

A hint of the band's dark energy can still be heard in the slow, pounding crescendo of "Varúð", and to a lesser degree in "Rembihnútur": the only songs with anything approaching an actual rhythm. But even here the circumspect drumming sounds like it was synthetically generated, and elsewhere on the album the energy is dialed back to austerity levels, hardly unplugged but with a couple of fuses deliberately missing.

Maybe that's the point. The entire project might have been an unintended but intuitive portrait of Iceland after its '08 economic collapse, marking the first, hesitant awareness of a band emerging from long hibernation into a new and unfamiliar world. You would sound a little over-cautious yourself, in their shoes.

I honestly came into this album having no doubts I would really like it. I had heard this was a more embient and more beautiful SIGUR ROS and I was really looking forward to it. Even after seeing some not so flattering reviews I was sure I would like this album a lot. Famous last words. I honestly don't get this record at all. I consider myself a fan and have three of their earlier studio albums that I value highly. This unfortunately doesn't come close to past glories. I would not call this beautiful but it is ambinet,

Each song sounds similar too making this review almost seem redundant. "Eg Anda" is quiet and spacy to start and it starts to build some around 2 1/2 minutes. Vocals a minute later. Slow pulsating sounds end it. "Ekki Mukk" is again quiet to start as reserved vocals join in. It's louder after 2 1/2 minutes but the sound will continue to fluctuate. "Varuo" is laid back but not very melodic. Vocals are the focus 1 1/2 minutes in. Piano and background sounds help out each time it settles.

"Rombihnutur" opens with humming sounds as sparse piano joins in. Vocals after 2 1/2 minutes. "Davoalogn" is again soft and quiet to start and the vocals come in around a minute. It builds some then settles back. This contrast continues. It blends into "Varoeldur" where slowly pulsating sounds with piano lead the way. Vocal melodies after 3 1/2 minutes. A very repetitive song but it works. This is the only song that I like. "Valtari" is spacey and if there was a so called beautiful passage this is it. "Fjogur Piano" is really laid back with slowly played piano helping out early.

I just can't recommend this album.

"Valtari" is the 6th "regular" full-length studio album by Icelandic post rock act Sigur R's. The album was released through Parlophone in May 2012. Their last album "Me' Su' ' Eyrum Vi' Spilum Endalaust" was released in 2008, so it's safe to say that Sigur R's aren't the most productive bunch around. I guess their working pace suits their reflective and melancholic music well though.

The music on "Valtari" is slow paced, melancholic, mellow and incredibly beautiful. There's something soul searching and deeply moving about Sigur R's music, that you very rarely find in music of any sort or style. That goes for most of their output and certainly applies to "Valtari". Layers upon layers of atmospheric sounds and instruments that form the instrumental basis of the tracks and on top of it the high pitched and fervent vocals by J'nsi Birgission. It's the kind of music you get lost in. The kind of music you listen to with dreamy glassy eyes while you reflect on your life's ups and downs.

The album is well produced featuring a warm organic sound production. All in all "Valtari" is just a really great album. If I have to mention one slight issue it would be the lack of variation. Besides the closing dramatic and loud minutes of "Var''", and "Rembihn'tur" which features some rythm/percussion, most tracks sound very much alike. It's not a major issue, but a bit more variation between and in tracks would probably have made "Valtari" a even more memorable album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.