Sigur Rós have shared a video of a live performance of ‘Stendur æva’. the second single to be taken from their long-awaited orchestral album ‘Odin’s Raven Magic’ (out on 4 December on Krunk via Warner Classics).
The record draws from the band’s orchestral and choral traditions, and is a collaboration between the band, Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Icelandic music legend Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, and Steindór Andersen – one of Iceland’s most respected chanters of traditional epic narrative.
The song is a quietly powerful and meditative eight and a half minutes that finds Steindór and Jónsi’s contrasting vocal stylings blending in perfect harmony while a choir and symphony orchestra – complete with a five-octave marimba built from roughly hewn pieces of stone by Páll Guðmundsson – add extra emotional depth.