Sigur Ros
Hvarf-Heim
EMI


It is with characteristic grandeur that the fifth Sigur Ros album ignites, and all too soon the baby alien vocal of Jonsi kicks in, which I have always found a little jarring however much it signifies the band. This compilation album is a must for devotees of the Icelandic sculptural post rock band, and the name is due to it being organised in two halves like individually named sides of an album.

'Hvarf' (meaning disappeared, or haven) contains studio recordings of apparently previously unreleased material (with the exception of one B-side, Hafsol) and 'Heim' (home) is a group of acoustic studio versions of previously released tracks. There are two versions of Von ('hope' in Icelandic), however, and 'Hvarf/Heim' plays like a best of.

I own only their debut album 'gtis Byrjun' (1999) but still managed to recognise most of the six tracks, which is probably due to the very long list of ad and soundtrack credits the band has accrued since the world awoke to their arctic brilliance at the beginning of the decade. On "Hvary/Heim', only subtle differences denote the 'acoustic' versions: the majestic Star‡lfur maintains most of the booming production ebb and flow of the original, and the drama and ecstasy of (both versions of) Von remain unassailable, however the version of gtis Byrjun reveals an unadorned piano and vocal which is splendid, but hardly unplugged. No matter. 'Hvarf/Heim' is a nice round up of some wild music, of beauty in slow motion and freezing freefall into some questionable vocal territory.

Narelle Walker