Sigur Ros – Variations On Darkness (LP)

Album Info Hide Show Artist: Sigur Rs Album: Variations On Darkness Released: Europe, 2019 Tracklist: A1 The Hungry Ghosts A2 We Live In An Old Chaos Of The Sun B1 The Silence Of Animals B2 The Truth Is, It Wanted To Cave In Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Sigur Rs have always treated atmosphere like a living thing, and Variations On Darkness is one of those releases where you can almost feel the air thicken as the record spins. Issued as a limited edition for Record Store Day 2019 on the bands own Krunk imprint, it gathers music created with the Iceland Dance Company for stage works in Reykjavk. That context matters. These pieces were built to move bodies in a room, to map light and shadow across space, and you can hear that physical intent in the way rhythms stalk and dissolve, and in how textures seem to pivot around an unseen choreography. This isnt a set of songs in the trad sense. Its a series of mood-rooms, each with its own gravitational pull. The palette leans into the more austere corner of the Sigur Rs universe. Think Valtaris vaporous drift, then pour in more grit and subterranean rumble. Low-end pulses roll in like distant weather. Guitars are treated as tone generators rather than riff machines, bowed and blurred until they become foghorns over black water. Percussion doesnt so much keep time as carve it into slabs, suddenly dropping out to leave a cold, charged quiet. Its closer to sound design than rock, yet it never feels clinical. Theres a human tremor in there, a heartbeat that keeps the tension from tipping into abstraction for its own sake. The dance connection also gives the record a shape thats different to their canonical albums. You can sense cues and turns baked into the arrangements, as if the music is listening, ready to make room for bodies. This pays off on vinyl. Side breaks feel like curtains falling and rising, and Variations On Darkness vinyl pulls you through suites that bloom and recede with an almost theatrical logic. It rewards a full-side sit rather than a quick needle drop. Play it late, let the room go quiet, and the details start flashing their signals. A stray chime that anchors a whole passage. A choir-like smear that hovers just out of focus, familiar yet hard to name. Context within the catalogue is where it gets interesting. Coming after the expansive Liminal live mixes and before the grand, choral sweep that would later return to the fore, this record works like a shadow companion to the bands widescreen post-rock reputation. It shows how comfortable Sigur Rs are when melody is a rumor and the drama sits in texture. If youre hunting Sigur Rs vinyl that broadens the story rather than repeating it, this is a sharp pick. It doesnt chase the slow-burn crescendo they helped define on gtis byrjun or Takk!, but it carries the same sense of wonder, just refracted through darker glass. Because it arrived as a Record Store Day title, availability came and went quickly in shops, and the whole thing has the aura of a document made for people who still love the ritual of the format. If you collect Sigur Rs albums on vinyl, it sits alongside the live curios and scores as a piece that fleshes out the bands world rather than shouting for the spotlight. And for anyone browsing around to buy Sigur Rs records online, its worth seeking out precisely because it doesnt overlap with the classic studio albums. Its focused, cohesive, and strangely tactile for a record built from smoke and shadow. Theres also a quiet thrill to how it confirms the bands appetite for cross-disciplinary work. The Reykjavk dance pieces didnt just commission background ambience. They sparked a set of compositions that stand on their own, and on record they feel complete. The sound may be sparse, but nothing is left to chance. Every swell and scrape earns its place. By the time the needle lifts, youre not humming a tune so much as recalling a space you passed through, with corners you want to revisit. For searchers and crate diggers alike, Variations On Darkness vinyl isnt a gateway album; its a deep cut with a strong pulse. Thats exactly why it sticks. If your shelves already hold the big hitters and youre exploring the edges, this one carries the weather of Icelandic stages into your lounge room and lets it linger. Its a thoughtful addition to any stack of vinyl records Australia-wide, and a reminder that Sigur Rs still find new ways to make silence feel alive. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review