Sigur Rós has consistently been one of the most outside of the box bands of their generation. I was first introduced to the band via their 2002 album ambiguously titled ( ). The title is a place holder because the idea behind this project was that the band wanted only to suggest musical ideas to the listener and let that person project in their own ideas of title or content. This concept of open to interpretation seemed so appealing to me at the time and I embraced it whole heartedly. In 2012 Sigur Rós furhtered this trend with an unprecedented project the called The Valtari Mystery Film Experiment.
Their explanation of the project is as follows:
sigur rós have given a dozen film makers the same modest budget and asked them to create whatever comes into their head when they listen to songs from the band's new album valtari. the idea is to bypass the usual artistic approval process and allow people utmost creative freedom. among the filmmakers are ramin bahrani, alma har'el and john cameron mitchell.
"we never meant our music to come with a pre-programmed emotional response. we don’t want to tell anyone how to feel and what to take from it. with the films, we have literally no idea what the directors are going to come back with. none of them know what the others are doing, so hopefully it will be interesting." – sigur rós, may 2012
The end result is an incredible collection of sixteen imaginative, beautiful, and moving short films. While Valtari the album has been available since May of 2012, the video collection will be released on March 15th of this new year. Posted below is the forteenth video in the series based on the album's title track. The video was written and directed by Christian Larson with choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, cinematography by Mattias Montero, costume design from Lydia Kovacs, and production work by Noreen Khan.
It is stunning. Enjoy.