Sigur Rós
Hlemmur

Hlemmur is the name of the bus station in Reykjavik and, like all stations, if during the day it is a point of departure and arrival, at night it becomes home for Icelandic homeless people, whose stories are told in the eponymous independent film by director Ólafur Sveinsson.

Sigur Rós composed the soundtrack, recorded towards the end of last year and then sold to the public during the last tour.
So, we are not looking at the fourth album. In fact, this collaboration completely diverges from the classic sound of Sigur Rós: Hlemmur is entirely instrumental, Jón Thor Birgisson's falsetto does not even allow for a vocalization. No violin strings on guitar strings, no orchestration as in Ágætis Byrjun, no drum imprint, diluted or accelerated, as in the second parenthesis of the last "()".

Rather, the seeds of ambient electronics resurface as found in the first album Von, together with the suspended and expansive atmospheres already tasted in the first parenthesis of "()". Synthesizers are used generously as are samples, and in some ways, it seems that Sigur Rós are winking at Mùm and Boards of Canada; after all, Jonsi does not hide his passion for electronics, and the future project under the pseudonym "Frakkur" is already an unveiled mystery.

The result of this passion is all in 19 fragmented tracks that, nevertheless, often refer to each other and seem to recombine into a single 40-minute piece. The sound is liquid and rarefied, immobile and dreamlike.
With repeated listens, one reaches a crossroads: either one yawns to death or appreciates what seems to be a fascinating work, perhaps unfinished and limited in structure but probably destined to leave a mark on the DNA of Sigur Rós.