Draumalandio

Valgeir Sigurosson's upcoming release on Bedroom Community is the score to a documentary of the same name, Draumalandio (or Dreamland in english). The film examines the devastation of Iceland's breath-taking landscape through the exploitation of its natural resources. The selection of Valgeir and his label-mates seems a wise choice, as fluent as they are in the language of atmospheric sounds and aural landscapes, and as capable they are of representing conflict in subtle hues.

You can hear the input and coalescence of all of bedroom community's big 5 in the track Grýlukvæði, a children's folktune sung in icelandic by sam amidon. Immediately apparent are sam's banjo, and BC newcomer Daniel Bjarnason's prepared piano tinklings. There's Ben Frost's industrial distortions and fuzz, and Nico Muhly's arrhythmic compositions, and, finally Valgeir tying it all together with his trademark hushes and swells. I haven't seen the film and don't understand a bit of Icelandic, but its easy to see how all these pieces fit together sonically in their own right, and as an accompaniment to the documentary. Sam's appalachian folk delivery with Valgeir's swirling composition behind him provides a sense of provincialism and vast, raw, natural beauty. Ben and Nico's challenging and dissonant contributions could certainly represent an affront to that beauty and Daniel's off-timbre piano articulates the inevitability of the impending destruction. I'm looking forward to the album, as well as the film.