Sigur Ros and Wordless Music Orchestra played the Wang Theatre – 8/19
Icelandic post-rock greats Sigur Ros returned to town with a full orchestra in tow, supporting their new record ÁTTA.
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Bands don’t come much more majestic than Sigur Ros. Founding and constant members Jónsi and Georg Hólm have spent nearly 30 years forging an ethereal style that employs bowed guitar, dreamy ambiance and the former’s otherworldly voice in service of a sonic experience akin to soaring among the clouds above their native Reykjavík. They are sweeping, they are emotive, they make objectively beautiful music that earns every breathless string of adjectives you can throw at it. This summer finds the band on a quest to ramp up their characteristic stirring beauty even further, by bringing the full 40-plus-piece Wordless Music Orchestra on the road and transforming some of North America’s grandest theaters into houses of post-rock worship.
Sigur Ros are no strangers to orchestration, of course – brass and string arrangements dot their discography and smaller-scale ensembles have joined them on tour in the past; we’re not talking Metallica linking up with the San Francisco Symphony in an attempt to fuse two wholly disparate worlds here – but accompaniment by a musical collective of this scale still feels like something momentous for the band. That ÁTTA – the band’s eighth studio record and first since 2013 – foregrounds the London Contemporary Orchestra in its ambient explorations points to the group’s motivation, but it was hardly just the new songs that benefitted from an orchestral lift. Over the course of two sets at the Wang on Saturday, the nearly 50 musicians on stage dug deep into the Sigur Ros catalog for a moving two-plus hours that found band and orchestra moving organically as one.
Amid a field of Edison bulbs whose glowing and fading served as the night’s main visual accompaniment, Jónsi, Hólm and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson performed ensconced by orchestra members and conductor Robert Ames. From the wings, it could be difficult to even get a clear sightline of the band members themselves, which only served to bolster the collectivist feel of the whole production.
Seven-minute ÁTTA lead single “Blóðberg” led off the night, setting a tone of hushed reverence amid the sold-out crowd that proved key to the show’s immersive effect. By way of both setlist choices that emphasized the band’s airier tendencies and a house mix tuned to orchestral acoustics, it wasn’t an especially loud show. Stretches barely rose above a whisper. Pin-drop silence from the room was an essential social contract, and the Sigur Ros crowd is certainly one to take that seriously.
The night’s 19 songs spanned from the band’s 1997 debut Von through to the present, skipping only 2013’s industrial-tinged Kveikur in a setlist suited to a new album that’s among the band’s most abstract and challenging. Three selections from 2012’s ambient-leaning Valtari, likely ÁTTA‘s closest relative in the catalog, slotted into the first set, while a wistful trio from 2002’s ( ) anchored the second. With the band’s signature instrumentation and Jónsi’s ever-angelic falsetto as their backbone, the WMO’s deftly-conducted accompaniment heightened the shimmering, sometimes somber beauty at the heart of the chosen material. And while several of what might be considered the band’s “hits” were absent, there were surely moments of fan-favorite acknowledgement. A gorgeous “Hoppípolla,” in particular, struck a chord as the night neared its end.
Unconventional as always, Sigur Ros are delivering something singular with these orchestral shows, even within the context of an already-singular career. Rewarding the patience and attentiveness of its audience, the performance was a mystical, all-consuming trip that only this band could take us on.
See some additional photos from the night below.
