AMIINA - Puzzle

It's about time people stopped bringing up Sigur Rós every time Amiina are discussed: it's true that the collaboration with Jónsi Birgisson's band was crucial in introducing to the world what was originally just an all-female string quartet, but clinging to that reference point is by now misleading, as well as essentially inaccurate, for a group that now counts six members (two of them male) and has effectively stepped out of the shadow of their more famous countrymen, to walk firmly and confidently on their own two feet.

The most obvious novelty resulting from "Puzzle" concerns precisely the lineup of Amiina, which has expanded not only in numerical terms but above all in its instrumental arsenal, now including a more pronounced electronic component and — a genuine first — drums. As a consequence, the other novelty lies in the variety of pieces making up this sonic "Puzzle", which comes across as far livelier and more varied than what was offered on the debut album "Kurr".

Recorded under the guidance of Birgir Jón Birgisson (who had already produced the recent "A Chorus Of Storytellers" by The Album Leaf) and released by the new label set up by the band themselves, the album reveals their transition from an ethereal but somewhat flat romanticism, centred on strings and liquid acoustic and analogue sounds, towards a broader sonic and stylistic palette that, besides embracing electronics, recovers shades close to a certain chamber-leaning post-rock and doesn't shy away from melodic attempts in the shape of a few proper songs, complete with vocal parts, sometimes faint, sometimes more assertive.

Indeed, while the underlying fabric of the record still retains unaltered the meticulous delicacy of acoustic, liquid, romantic textures that inevitably evoke a Nordic imagery now rendered in more vivid colours, albeit veiled in the inevitable melancholy, broad harmonic openings and instrumental solutions graft themselves onto the ambience created by gentle weaves of strings, xylophone and toy instruments, unveiling new scenarios for the four Icelandic musicians. Amiina come across here as far less shy than on their debut album, turning the lulling vocal hints already present on "Kurr" into more assertive melodies and songs that make room for choral touches ("Over And Again" and the delightful single "What Are We Waiting For?"), rounded off by glimpses of orchestral minimalism and insistent "post-" style rhythms, which strongly characterise the dance of "Ásinn" and even take on muffled, odd-time tonalities in the unleashed finale of "Sicsak".

More assertive and outgoing, Amiina's music nonetheless loses none of its distinctive traits as a flawless mechanism, moving with the slow precision of a gear train in which the instruments interlock perfectly, once again giving rise to atmospheres of suspended grace ("Púsl") that aren't afraid to let clear folk echoes surface ("In The Sun"), alternating throughout the album with circular strings, electroacoustic games reminiscent of early Múm, and crescendo-driven openings more pronounced than ever before. All encouraging signs, attesting to the growth of a band that clearly no longer settles for living by reflected light alone, but is instead working out an expressive formula of its own, blending its usual chamber-music flourishes with folk legacies, electronics and an instrumental texture denser than ever. The four young women prove they've grown up, and have no intention of stopping here.

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19/10/2010