Sigur Rós have shared a new single titled Óveður – their first full release since their 2013 album Kveikur.
After sharing a unique 24-hour stream of driving around Iceland for the Summer Solstice, the post-rock greats have released what could be the first single of a possible new album.
The song, which came with a cerebral visual directed by Jonas Åkerlund, is one of the band’s best yet.
Óveður features a smoldering instrumental, where glitchy electronics and reverb-laden strings blend brilliantly, and vocalist Jónsi Birgisson’s indelible falsetto pours through the dense composition.
Jónsi’s vocals are mellifluous as ever. I can’t understand a word of Icelandic — although the title of the track translates as “Storms” in English — but the passion behind each syllable and sibilant he speaks is truly universal.
The video features a drunken vagrant, played by choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir, dancing with her one-eyed husky through the idyllic town of Grindavík (in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula) before going to a local pub where we find its patrons, and the three members of Sigur Rós, partaking in what can be best described as body horror and turpitude.
The peculiar themes of the video juxtaposed with the gorgeous scenery and stunning music is pretty head-scratch worthy but the result is one of strangest, most captivating videos I’ve seen this year so far.
Watch the video for Óveður below.