Bedroom Community

Composer, producer, and Bedroom Community label head Valgeir Sigurðsson’s second proper release is a soundtrack for Draumalandið, a documentary focusing on the problems that come with being a natural resource rich country – namely corporate industrialization and loss of local control – and the attendant environmental and civic mismanagement that such distanced and profit-minded leadership promises. Bedroom Community is also rich in natural resources, and Sigurðsson has called in the talents of composer Nico Muhly, neo-folk troubadour Sam Amidon, cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir, and sound architect Ben Frost. If you are normally turned off by soundtracks, this one might be the exception to the rule. This flows more like an artist album than a film accompaniment, including a variety of styles and changes of pace. While there is still some of the contrived drama in the more traditional score-like orchestral pieces, they’re offset by pastoral beauty (“I Offer Prosperity And Eternal Life”), lonesome piano melodies (“Economic Hitman”), feedback creep (“Cold Ground, Hot”), and intelligent use of texture (“Past Tundra”, “Beyond the Moss”). Starting with a vocal number and ending with harrowing bombast, this soundtrack covers a lot of ground with grace, and doesn’t act as if it’s subservient to the content and pacing of a separate narrative. If you’re a fan of Iceland’s current surplus of dramatic and earthy musicians, but are weary of soundtracks, that shouldn’t let you get in the way of hearing Draumalandið.

Valgeir Sigurðsson

Bedroom Community

Greg Argo