Bedroom Community

Long known for his prodigious skill as a producer and having worked hand in hand with Bjork to create the gloriously ornate textures of her Vespertine and Medulla albums, Valgeir Sigurdsson has surprisingly just now gotten around to making his first solo disc.

Remarkably imaginative, Sigurdsson weaves a meticulous tapestry of glistening textures from reverberating chimes, droning strings, ambient synths, and carefully constructed beats. Guest performers abound, from Faun Fable’s Dawn McCarthy to avant-garde pianist Nico Muhly, but Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy steals the show, providing vocals for “Kin” and “Evolution of Waters,” two lushly string-laden tracks.

Sigurdsson’s attention to detail is just as stunning when he’s creating a dense forest of sputtering and clicking beats for “A Symmetry” as it is when he’s layering strings for the beauty of “Winter Sleep.” On Ekvilibrium, Sigurdsson successfully weaves organic instrumentation with digitalism to produce a gorgeous outcome.

Matt Fink