Bedroom Community

There was one fault I was looking for in this album, and I'm delighted to report that Daniel Bjarnason is NOT guilty of it. A great album by default, surely?

The problem that pop musicians (or in this case, musicians closely associated with pop) have when they turn to classical music is that they have a tendancy to view the genre as one amorphous whole, and therefore pick and choose elements and influences from all over the place. In a world where Bingen, Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Bertwhistle, and Bang on a Can are all instantly available with in the click of a button, that's perfectly understandable, but the result is often too close to the gleefully, pointlessly awful genre-hopping of pop bands like Mr. Bungle for comfort. Bjarnason, however, is too smart for that - he picks one sound (the dramatic, maudlin dying breaths of the last few years of Romanticism) and nails it square on. "Blood to Bones" and "Air to Breathe" really are perfectly judged in that respect - context aside (i.e. - they're not a part of larger works as the classical world would traditionally understand it, although the first three tracks are labelled up as a suite) you'd struggle to guess they weren't authentic products of the era.

What makes it all the more impressive is that he succeeds when he turns towards something more in line with pop, too. I say 'pop' in the loosest sense, to be sure, but there's a real grab-you-by-the-balls immediacy about "Sorrow Conquers Joy" and "In Medias Res", particularly the former (which is, incidentally, an outright incredible piece of music). This is maybe where you'd expect him to struggle, if you looked at him as a product of a classical education rather than a Sigur Ros collaborator - (which is the right thing to do, of course, but very few will), but he flies through with no trouble at all.

Far from just getting over the one hurdle, Bjarnason has managed to negotiate every typical pitfall of classical crossover music - and he's done it by basically refusing to cave to pop music all that much. That's not to say that this is inaccessible (it's defnitely not), but that Bjarnason hasn't compromised on what he wants to do as you'd have expected he would if he were chasing adulation from Sigur Ros and Amina fans. Maybe, he'll be rewarded for that; there's certainly an audience developing within indie for classical music, and not only will Bjarnsson's previous allegiances give him a leg-up, but the fact that his music doesn't bend to cheesy crossover conventions will probably keep those listeners around - this certainly has some superifical, but important similarities to a lot of the other music from the classical world that's gained popularity amongst the kind of people who use RYM/browse Pitchfork/read The Wire/write blogs/hang around gig venues acting all important even when they're closed.

Iai