Bedroom Community

Ace producer Valgeir Sigurdsson has had a hand in the recent outpourings of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and his Icelandic compatriot Bjork. Just dropping those two names should be enough to give you some idea of how good a producer this guy is. After hearing Bjork's Medulla you'd assume that Valgeir was some electronic whiz kid, but by the time Will Oldham's The Letting Go dropped there was ample evidence to suggest that he was equally at home recording in a predominantly acoustic context. The same high definition warmth that characterized those projects is cast over Sigurdsson's solo debut, an album for all connoisseurs of recorded sound, marrying exceptional electronic detail with real instrumentation on a grand scale. Being the studio high-flyer he is, Sigurdsson gets to call in favours from modern classical composer Nico Muhly (who contributes on piano), Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy and the aforementioned Will Oldham, lending his vocals to two tracks here. The first of the Oldham-sung pieces ('Evolution Of Waters') is a real spa treatment for the ears, loaded with gorgeous strings, scuttling pitter-pat beats and chiming music box melodies. Instrumental piece 'Focal Point' works on a similar set of principles, with an unprecedented crispness and clarity of sound at the essence of its success. Slightly more amorphous soundscaping characterizes the middle section of the album, with 'After Four' and 'Equilibrium is Restored' converging on a richly layered ocean of sonic texture. The Dawn McCarthy collaboration 'Winter Sleep' takes the album to operatic levels of orchestral melodrama, only for the scale to gracefully shrink on the chamber piece for strings 'Before Nine'. Ekvilibrium stretches far beyond showcasing Sigurdsson's studio prowess, it proves he's an artist to be reckoned with in his own right.

Boomkat