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Jonsi and Alex

Clint Mansell

Forest Fire

Bill Frisell

Gurrumul

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POP
Jonsi And Alex
Riceboy Sleeps
(Parlophone)
****
Jon Por Birgisson is the leader of ethereal Icelanders Sigur Rós, while his off-stage partner Alex Somers is responsible for some of the band's artwork. The vegan couple recently collaborated on a lavish picture book as Riceboy Sleeps and now, with a Sigur Rós album not due until 2010, the pair have decided to call themselves by their Christian names — and they have recorded an album whose title alludes to their previous professional collaboration. There'll be a test later.

The music, however, is too lovely to confuse anyone. Five years in the making and possibly the first album to be recorded in Iceland and mixed in Hawaii, it's a more extreme version of Sigur Rós. The duo and assorted collaborators used only acoustic instruments, then layered to lushness. The result is almost entirely instrumental, and full of bumps and squeaks you can't quite identify: Howl seems to fade out with a selection of farmyard animals while Sleeping Giant has more creaking doors than a Hammer film. Yet for all its intimacy it sounds huge, from the cathedral-sized organ on Howl and All The Big Trees to the Morricone-esque choir that takes Atlas Song and Boy 1904 to vertigo-inducing heights of grandeur.

The nine lengthy tracks tumble into each other but that's no loss since the whole package is as beautiful as it is moving. Easy to listen to rather than easy listening, more for dinner-table discussion than for dinner-party background, it's up there with the best of Sigur Rós.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Clint Mansell
Moon: OST
(Black Records)
***
The career arc of Clint Mansell is one of unconventional geometry, to say the least. Who would have guessed that the frontman for Pop Will Eat Itself — a self-prophesying name if ever there was one — would reinvent himself as one of the hottest composers of film soundtracks in Hollywood? His CV, including Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler, is already impressive. Moon is directed by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) and stars Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey voicing a robot called Gerty. These instrumental cameos are alternately full of foreboding and sweetly tender, with piano, ominous percussion, strings and space noises. Quite possibly, a giant step for Clint.
PETE CLARK

Forest Fire
Survival
(Broken Sound)
****
For anyone who thinks the Fleet Foxes album is lovely but wishes it had sharper teeth, make way for another band of F-words, Brooklyn quartet Forest Fire, who recorded their debut in loose live takes around a single microphone. The campfire sweetness of I Make Windows soon finds room for some ragged electric guitar, while there's a raw, Velvet Underground drone to Promise. Their harmonising sounds best on the slow-motion ballad Sunshine City, a single line repeated to hypnotic effect, while the standout track, Fortune Teller, has a tuneful groove that brings their moody atmospherics into sharp focus. It's too shambolic for real crossover potential — but keep an eye on them for the future.
DAVID SMYTH

JAZZ
Bill Frisell
Disfarmer
(Disfarmer)
****
These stars are mainly for originality, guitarist Bill Frisell's strongest suit. One of the big US names signed for next November's London Jazz Festival, he doesn't care for screams, roars and fireworks. His is a peaceful world where the twin streams of jazz and country-and-western meet in gentle confluence. And rather like the tortoise outlasting the hare, he's still thriving there after 30 years and scores of albums. His latest reflects the work of Michael Disfarmer, an Arkansas photographer whose black-and-white images captured the realities of rural life in the Forties. Bill's plaintive sketches for guitar, bass, violin and lap-steel guitar cleverly evoke those gritty times.
JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
Gurrumul
(Dramatico)
****This blind Australian singer is special — he plays to stadiums in Australia, something that's quite exceptional for an aboriginal performer. Gurrumul was part of Yothu Yindi, Australia's most successful aboriginal band, but is now pursuing a solo career. He sings in aboriginal languages and plays acoustic guitar. There's a vulnerability, beauty and poetry to the songs. His lyrics describe reflections of clouds in water and you wonder, for a man born blind, where it comes from. The answer is from images handed down in his culture. Without a didgeridoo or a clapstick, Gurrumul is aboriginal Australia's most extraordinary spokesman. He plays the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Tuesday.
SIMON BROUGHTON

 

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