Seabear - We Built A Fire

Icelandic singer/multi-instrumentalist Sindri Már Sigfússon is at the creative core of Seabear, a septet of musicians -- each with their own individual art and music projects -- who together fashion some of the more interesting and eclectic folk-based chamber/pop we've heard over the past few years. As the follow up to the 2007 debut Ghost That Carried Us Away, new album We Built A Fire, available March 30 in the U.S., is a gorgeous if unassuming collection of songs that combine sweetly rendered pop melodies with finely crafted orchestrated backings.

There's a refined presence to songs such as "Cold Summer", a quiet stunner that takes Sigfússon's lighter-than-air vocal and wraps it in a warm blanket of delicate piano and lovely horn and string arrangements. The lo-fi intimacy that's at the heart of Seabear is also on display with "Lion Face Boy", another gem of gently mannered melody and sophisticated instrumental notation. Akin to a combination of Iceland compatriots Sigur Ros meeting up with Sufjan Stevens, Seabear shines as a nocturnal study of unhurried understatement. Highly recommended.

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Seabear - "Cold Summer" (from the album We Built A Fire)

Seabear - "Lion Face Boy" (from the album We Built A Fire)