Pitchfork评测Sigur Rós 新专ÁTTA

After a decade, the Icelandic band returns with an album of minimal music performed maximally, along with a 41-piece orchestra, climate despair, and Jónsi’s inimitable vocals.

十年后，冰岛乐队带着一张极简音乐专辑回归，伴随41人的管弦乐队，气候危机和Jónsi无与伦比的人声。

Does Jónsi ever wish his voice weren’t so pretty? While he’s never made the same album twice, either as a solo artist or a collaborator or the frontman of Sigur Rós, he’s also never made an album that turned out anything other than exquisitely beautiful, no matter how much he’s fought against it. Sigur Rós responded to their international breakthrough by going full-on hauntology with ( ), but if the movie syncs were any indication, they were still seen as friendly ghosts. They made an album whose title translated to “steamroller,” but the music itself consumed the listener like a bubble bath. Even beyond the legal and interpersonal turmoil, the past decade has been inhospitable to Sigur Rós’ creative process—if Jónsi expressed his anger towards a world of “climate change, doom-scrolling and going to hell” on a Sigur Rós album, as he does here, would their English-speaking audience even be able to tell? ÁTTA proves that Sigur Rós are physically capable of making angry music—but they aim for the softer, more poignant variants: despair, depression, and dejection.

Jónsi曾经希望他的声音不那么悦耳吗？虽然他从未制作过两次同一张专辑，无论是作为独奏艺术家、合作者还是Sigur Rós的主唱，但他也从未制作过一张除了精致美丽的专辑，无论他如何与之斗争。Sigur Rós对他们的国际上的突破做出了回应，通过（ ）阐述的鬼魂学，但如果电影同步有任何迹象，他们仍然被视为友好的鬼魂。他们制作了一张专辑，其标题翻译为“steamroller”，但音乐本身像泡泡浴一样包裹了听众的耳朵。即使除了法律和人际动荡之外，过去十年对Sigur Rós的创作过程来说也是不适宜的——如果Jónsi在Sigur Rós的专辑中表达他对“气候变化、末日滚动和下地狱”世界的愤怒，就像他在这里所做的那样，他们的英语观众甚至能说出来吗？ÁTTA证明了Sigur Rós在身体上有能力制作愤怒的音乐——但他们的目标是更柔和、更尖锐的变体：绝望、抑郁和沮丧。

Three months earlier, Sigur Rós announced an upcoming tour with a 41-piece orchestra—a perfectly sensible endeavor if they were still engaging in the brand stewardship that took up much of the past decade. It turns out that they were tipping their hand in the direction of ÁTTA. The introductory “Glóð” misleads with its electronic crackle and backmasked vocals, suggesting a continuation of the purely textural work of Valtari or Riceboy Sleeps. And since ÁTTA is almost entirely absent of guitars and percussion—their disgraced former drummer has not been replaced—it’s likely to be described as “ambient.”

三个月前，Sigur Rós宣布即将与一个41人组成的管弦乐队进行巡演——如果他们仍然从事过去十年大部分时间的品牌管理，这是一项非常明智的努力。事实证明，他们正在向ÁTTA的方向倾斜。介绍性的“Glóð”以其电子噼啪声和背带背景的人声误导了，暗示了Valtari或Riceboy Sleeps的纯纹理作品的延续。由于ÁTTA几乎完全没有吉他和打击乐——使他们名誉扫地的前鼓手没有被取代——它可能被描述为“环境音乐”。

But throughout, Sigur Rós make the distinction between ambient and classical for people who might not otherwise listen to either of these forms. This is minimal music often performed maximally; without access to the frothy distortion and cymbal clatter that typically brought Sigur Rós songs to a crescendo, the strings on “Skel” slowly accrue a concussive force that draws as much attention to the mixing as Jónsi’s vocal dynamics. He dips into his lower register often throughout ÁTTA and allows himself to rise triumphantly alongside even the loudest orchestral blares, performing like a first-chair soloist more than the frontman of a rock band.

但自始至终，Sigur Rós为那些可能不听这些形式的人区分了氛围和古典音乐。这是通常最大限度地表演的极简音乐；由于无法获得通常使Sigur Rós歌曲达到高潮的空洞的失真和铜钹的摩擦声，“Skel”上的弦乐慢慢积累了震荡力，与Jónsi的声乐动力学一样吸引了人们对混音的关注。在整个ÁTTA中，他经常沉浸在他的低音域中，并允许自己与最响亮的管弦乐一起胜利地站起来，表演得更像一把第一把椅子的独奏者，而不是摇滚乐队的主唱。

Advance copies of ÁTTA were delivered as a single 56-minute track, a strong suggestion that its narrow range of tempo and texture is an intentional choice and that its optimal listening experience replicates what most people probably expect of a 41-piece orchestra: fully seated, no bathroom breaks, withholding the temptation to seek a moment worthy of a standing ovation until it’s done. (The official release is split into 10 tracks like any other Sigur Rós album.) Regardless of its more refined presentation, this is not an album of passages or movements or suites. It’s best understood and appreciated as a collection of songs, of which there are clear highlights.

ÁTTA的原曲本作为单首56分钟的曲目发表，强烈的建议其狭窄范围包括节奏和统一感是一个有意的选择，其最佳的聆听体验复制了大多数人可能对41人管弦乐队的期望：完全坐着，没有洗手间休息，在完成之前不寻求值得起立鼓掌的时刻的诱惑。（与任何其他Sigur Rós专辑一样，官方发行分为10首曲目。）无论其更精致的呈现方式如何，这不是一张乐段、乐章或组曲的专辑。它最好作为歌曲集来理解和欣赏，其中有明显的亮点。

“Klettur” might be the most conventional display of heft on ÁTTA, but it’s also the most satisfying, the only establishment of continuity from their previous album of original material, 2013’s underappreciated Kveikur. After 15 minutes of somber swells, it emerges from a shivering riff that could conceivably be bowed on Jónsi’s guitar as a crowd-pleasing reward for their patience. The other track to feature any kind of percussion ( an understated, pulsing kick drum in both cases), “Gold” is in the mold of “Avalon” or “Untitled 8,” but recast as windswept folk sung by the last man on earth. As much as “Klettur” and “Gold” supply immediate pleasures, they also call the overall concept into question—are they payoffs for their sedate surroundings or just glimpses of an album where Sigur Rós makes more daring use of an orchestra while working outside of rock’s strictures? While ÁTTA is always engaging, it’s engaging through a familiarity that feels like a missed opportunity during the stretches where the London Symphony Orchestra mostly sounds like they’ve been tasked with playing Ágætis byrjun stems.

“Klettur”可能是ÁTTA上最传统的重量展示，但它也是最令人满意的，是他们上一张原创材料专辑中唯一的连续性，2013年被低估的Kveikur。经过15分钟的阴郁膨胀后，它从颤抖的即兴重复段中浮现出来，可以想象在Jónsi的吉他上鞠躬，作为对他们耐心的讨人喜欢的奖励。另一首曲目以任何类型的打击乐为特色（两种情况下都是一种低调的律动踢踏鼓），“Gold”是“Avalon”或“Untitled 8”的模式，但被重塑为地球上最后一个人唱的狂风民谣。尽管“Klettur”和“Gold”提供了即时的乐趣，但他们也对整体概念提出了质疑——他们是平静的环境的回报，还是只是瞥见了一张Sigur Rós在摇滚紧缩之外工作时更大胆地使用管弦乐队的专辑？虽然ÁTTA总是引人入胜，但它通过熟悉感参与其中，在伦敦交响乐团的大部分时间里，感觉就像错过了机会，他们似乎被赋予了演奏Ágætis byrjun风格的任务。

Still, even Sigur Rós seem to admit that ÁTTA is intended as a multimedia experience. Though “cinematic” has been the default tag for Sigur Rós’ music on its own, they’ve long relied upon visuals to get the point across. Witness lead single “Blóðberg,” whose title alone encompasses their tendency to spring forth in beauty—it’s a wild thyme plant native to Iceland whose name translates to the way more badass “blood stone.” On its own terms, it’s one of Sigur Rós’ most desolate arrangements, but the despair is recognizable; without the anchor of any low end, Jónsi sighs and howls as the strings surge and recede. The video extends “Blóðberg” to a full 10 minutes of little more than drone shots of a barren wasteland—either desert or tundra—where twisted mannequin remains are indistinguishable from gnarled branches.

尽管如此，即使Sigur Rós似乎也承认ÁTTA的目的是作为一种多媒体体验。虽然“电影”一直是Sigur Rós音乐本身的默认标签，但他们长期以来一直依靠视觉效果来传达具体细节。以主打单曲“Blóðberg”为例，它的名字本身就包含了他们在美丽中绽放的倾向——这是一种原产于冰岛的野生百里香植物，它的名字翻译成更厉害的“血石”。就其本身而言，这是Sigur Rós最孤独忧伤的编排之一，但绝望是可以辨认的;没有任何支柱的锚，Jónsi随着弦的起伏和消退而叹息和嚎叫。视频将“Blóðberg”扩展到整整10分钟，无人机拍摄了一片贫瘠的荒地——要么是沙漠，要么是苔原——扭曲的人体模型残骸和多节的树枝难以区分。

It’s not surprising that Jónsi has noted climate crisis as a primary prompt for ÁTTA’s nihilism; it’s also hardly coincidental that Sigur Rós teamed up with Johan Renck, a director best known for his work on the Chernobyl miniseries, even if the landscape might actually be on loan from Renck’s current project, a lunar sci-fi drama starring Adam Sandler. If “Blóðberg” is any indication, Jónsi has carefully assessed our impending environmental apocalypse as inevitable and a matter of incremental decline rather than an extinction-level event more suited for the climax of “Ný Batterí.” Even given its inspiration, ÁTTA never feels dishonest in its expression or its ambition to provide Hopelandic for hopeless times.

Jónsi指出气候危机是ÁTTA虚无主义的主要推动者，这并不奇怪；Sigur Rós与以切尔诺贝利迷你剧而闻名的导演Johan Renck合作也并非巧合，即使景观实际上可能来自Renck目前的项目，这是一个由Adam Sandler主演的月球科幻剧。如果“Blóðberg”是任何迹象，Jónsi仔细评估了我们即将到来的环境启示录是不可避免的，是一个渐进式下降的问题，而不是更适合“Ný Batterí”高潮的灭绝级事件。即使考虑到它的灵感，ÁTTA在表达或为无望的时代提供Hopelandic的野心方面也从未感到不诚实。