You can forgive Sigur Rós for being hazy on the details of the recording of their sixth studio album ‘Valtari’.  Recordings started as far back as 2007 on the back of album ‘Takk...’, but ‘Valtari’ actually has its roots earlier still, in a 2002 collaboration with the 16 Choir at London’s Barbican Centre.  Constituent parts were also taken from 2009’s sessions around the last album, ‘Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’, plus from sessions from a film score that never saw the light of day.

In 2011, the band started the painstaking task of piecing together a cohesive and magical work from disparate constituent parts – breaking the songs apart, discarding elements and adding others, and putting them back together again.  

Sigur Rós’Georg Holm says of the album “I really can’t remember why we started this record, I no longer know what we were trying to do back then. I do know session after session went pear-shaped, we lost focus and almost gave up...did give up for a while. But then something happened and form started to emerge, and now I can honestly say that it’s the only Sigur Rós record I have listened to for pleasure in my own house after we’ve finished it.”

The end result, despite (or perhaps because of) the winding path taken, is a striking and beautiful album, with euphoric vocal peaks contrasting with moments of deep calm. Take a listen to ‘Ekki múkk’ below for a sample…