Bedroom Community

Draumalandið is the name of a new documentary about Iceland's current environmental plight and its inextricable connection with the forces of the global economy. For the film's soundtrack, renowned producer Valgeir Sigurðsson calls upon the entire roster of his Bedroom Community label for support. The score is fleshed out by classical composers Nico Muhly and Daniel Bjarnason (the latter's excellent Processions debut album still being fresh in the memory) with further contributions arriving from ambient noise sculptor Ben Frost and US singer-songwriter Sam Amidon. While much of the record is driven by orchestral instrumentation, opening piece 'Grýlukvæði' is fronted with an Icelandic vocal, sung by a banjo-toting Amidon amid a breeze of clipped glitch-beats and filter treatments. We're soon thrown into the main body of the score, which wastes no time in employing the idiom of panoramic soundtrack composition, with added touches like distortion from Frost (put to excellent use on the closing 'Helter Smelter') or prepared piano by Bjarnason subtly setting this music apart from mainstream orchestral scoring. Of course, Sigurðsson is best known in his capacity as a producer and engineer, and in these fields the record certainly distinguishes itself capturing the scale of the undertaking with great clarity and warmth, adding a little contemporary, digital magic to the formula when called for. 'Beyond The Moss' is especially easy on the ear; its disjointed strings wrestling chimes, unruly metallic percussion and odd, plosive exclamations over the full breadth of the stereo field.

Highly recommended.