Matthew Magee
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Sigur Ros: the light fantastic

27/9/2017

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Sigur Ros/ Armadillo Glasgow / 24.9.17

Sometimes you have to just let go. 
Picture
Image: Kyle Mortara under CC licence CC BY-NC 2.0
A Sigur Ros gig is the last place you should look for variety, surprises or lively energy - songs blend into each other, moving at glacial pace and the soundscape shifts and drifts, but all within a well defined tone palatte.

Stay too alert and it can grate. But fall back mentally and emotionally into the deep, soft folds of the rich sonic material and you can lose yourself completely.
Picture
Image: Kyle Mortara under CC licence CC BY-NC 2.0
The sound was beautiful, rich and dreamy but, annoyingly, came in part from backing tapes. But what marked this show out was not how it sounded but how it looked. This was the most stunningly lit show I've ever seen.o edit.
Picture
Image: Kyle Mortara under CC licence CC BY-NC 2.0
The staging was layered, allowing for textured lighting using on-stage fixed lights, moving video screens and blazes of intense colour. One breathtaking moment came when the stage darkened and pristine pin-pricks of white light moved slowly through the darkness towards the band, like being in the cockpit of a super slo-mo Millenium Falcon going into hyperspace.
​This was an ethereal, other-wordly show that required a change of mindset, commitment from the listener as well as the band.
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    Matthew has reviewed, interviewed and opined about music for many newspapers.

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