BURSTRoyal Albert Hall, London
Perhaps the band that can best justify a mid-career gig with classical backing, the extra heft of the orchestra adds power to the Icelanders’ beautiful crescendos
On Sigur Rós’s most recent album Átta, their first in a decade, the group reversed course from the intriguing industrial experiment of its predecessor Kveikur and returned to safe ground – leaning back into the grand orchestral crescendos that defined their best-loved work, as glacial in pace as they are in beauty. It makes sense, then, that the USP of their current tour is a collaboration with a different set of classical musicians in every city.
Though mid-career-band-joined-by-orchestra sets so often enlist classical musicians to fill the holes left by fading creativity, leaving awkward blends between the two parties, that’s not the case tonight. The Icelanders meld seamlessly with the London Contemporary Orchestra, musically and visually, with both camps all in monochrome, mingled together under a sea of star-like lights. Opening with Blóðberg, one of several cuts from Átta, Jónsi’s voice – still utterly pristine after all these decades – floats up beautifully from the orchestra’s heaving waves of strings and brass, the lights brightening and dimming in time with the music’s volume.
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