Summer Echoes

It is really only 3 years since Iceland's new king of lo-fi layered lushness, Sindri Mar Sigfusson, began his official recording career. 'Summer Echoes', the new and second album of his solo-project Sin Fang (he dropped the 'Bous') is now already his 4th album release (including 2 records by his other musical outlet Seabear) since 2007.

The album oscillates wildly unearthing glimpses of familiarity - vintage Flying Nun here, Paw Tracks there and a Belle and Sebastian pop nous - while retaining the own stark originality of this uber-talented artist and producer. After playing all instruments on his debut solo album 'Clangour', this time around Sigfusson wanted to move closer to the sound of a live band and recruited a number of his friends from Múm, Amiina and Seabear to record 'Summer Echoes' in his own studio and Sigur Rós' Sundlaugin studio.

The arrangements are more band oriented, grander in scope and more transparent than their predecessor's and there is a diverse breadth of sounds across 'Summer Echoes' dozen songs, reaching from a heart-breaking intimate piano ballad like 'Two Boys' to sudden outbursts of guitar noise in 'Bruises'. Not even the one-off appearance of synthetic beats in 'Sing for a Dream' sound out of place when drenched in Sin Fang's signature layered wash of sound.

It is the album's first single, 'Because of the Blood', that encapsulates the essence of this album in an euphoric orchestral pop song that manages to merge epic tune sculpting with several layers of choir abundance.