There's a certain magic quality to window gazing from a moving train.The din and rattle of the train as it thrusts towards its destination,coupled with the quiet serenity seen through the window, can make for acalming and restorative experience.Resonant
Olvis' Orlygur Thor Orlygursson seems to understand this quiet majesty, and on The Blue Sound,he creates an album that manages to approximate that intimateexperience. The feel and sound of 1960s French and Brazilian pop,Icelandic sound-scapes, and mid-1990s Tortoise all find their way ontothis record, making it a particularly warm and inviting experience. On"Time Capsule," slowly swelling strings provide for a lush backgroundagainst Orlygursson's unassuming vocals (here in Icelandic), allowingthe song to reach an understated jazzy swing. Elsewhere, such as on"Whispering Glades" and "Pacific Island," he beats TNT-era Tortoise attheir own game. With the aid of Sigur Rós members Orri Dyrason on drumsand Georg Holm on bass on the former (both contribute on several othersongs), both songs achieve a dream-like swirl that touches oneverything from shimmering folk to post-rock atmospherics. Though The Blue Soundmanages to be engaging throughout, there are points where Olvis' sonicsoundscapes can lapse into "chill out" pastiche. This is the case with"Warfare and Welfare," which boasts some pretty arrangements, butultimately fails to deliver the subdued hooks and stylistic flexibilityof his other songs. But complaints like these pale in comparison to thepositive things there are to be found on this release. With The Blue Sound, Orlygursson has managed to synthesize his wide-ranging influences into a single vision and we are all to benefit for it.
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