ÁTTA

Following its surprise digital release, Sigur Rós’ first new studio album in ten years, ÁTTA, is their most intimate and emotionally direct record to date.

Few bands cut through the noise and distractions of the world to bring you a pure elemental truth or feeling like Sigur Rós. As you hear on ÁTTA, there’s a new compulsion and drive to the band that comes with the new formation of the line up. Multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson is back in the fold – having left the band in 2012 – to join frontman Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm.

Recorded across multiple continents – in the band’s Sundlaugin studio in Iceland, the legendary Abbey Road in the UK and a number of studios in the US – ÁTTA leans heavily towards the orchestral, and touches on everything that has made Sigur Rós one of the most ambitious and acclaimed bands of recent times, with close to ten million albums sold, whilst signposting an exciting and expansive possibility for their future. ÁTTA prominently features the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames, alongside brass performed by longtime Icelandic collaborators Brassgat í bala. It is mixed and co-produced by another frequent collaborator Paul Corley, alongside the band.

“When the new album’s slow advance was frozen by the pandemic, this self-defined “big loner” rather enjoyed lockdown, he says. “Because I’ve been living [out of] a suitcase for 20 years, being in the same place for two years was unheard of. So this, for me, was a beautiful rest.” He exhibited paintings and sculptures, released a clubby solo album (2020’s Shiver) and continued his study of perfumery. “With aroma molecules you have individual notes and tones, so you can focus your scent composition,” he says. “It’s a little bit like music: how the elements harmonise, how much space there should be. I love this idea of triggering senses in different ways.””