pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

Updated with official notice, sample tune (Ekki Múkk) that you can buy/download & video trailer from Sigur Rós (below).

Update 4/4/12 with cover art done by Jónsi’s sisters, Lilja and Inga Birgisdóttir (incidentally, Inga was the baby on the band’s first album cover, Von.)

As reported by Q, 24bit and Paste, Sigur Rós’ new album is called Valtari and due out on May 28th (Europe) or May 29th, 2012 (US).  At first, this looked like an elaborate pre-April Fool’s Day joke to me, simply based on this call out quote.  I bounced an email off of Peter at 24Bit, and he seemed to have vetted it a bit.

Simply based on the fact that I know Sigur Rós was in the studio working on new material, I’ll give my skepticism kudos but I’ll also give this news the benefit of the doubt.  Here’s what was reported on 24bit…

Following up a stunning solo LP and film score, Jónsi is back with the great Icelandic quartet Sigur Rós for a full-length successor to 2008′s Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. Due out on May 28th and titled Valtari, the 7-track effort features “more electronic stuff than before,” bassist Georg Hólm told Q Magazine (via). “But don’t worry,” he added, “we haven’t made a dance record.”

Aside from track titles, the release date, and a few non-specific adjectives (“beautiful,” “dreamy,” “introverted,” etc.), Hólm and Jónsi offered their own differing images of what to expect:

Hólm: “…this I’d compare to looking at an old landscape painting.”

 Birgisson: “…like an avalanche in slow motion.”

It sounds like — as with most of the Sigur Rós oeuvre — we’ll have another cinematic set left gloriously open to interpretation. While we wait, the pair shared these track titles for cuts recently mixed with co-producer Alex Somers below:

Valtari Tracklist

• Ég Anda
• Ekki Múkk
• Varúð
• Rembihnútur
• Dauðalogn
• Varðeldur
• Valtari
• Flogur Piaro (?)

No official word on the Sigur Rós news page, but I imagine it’ll be forthcoming soon if true.

Nevermind… it’s legit!

Pre-order featuring exclusive merchandise coming soon!

~Dan – np: Skeleton Key – Gravity is the Enemy