There's a reason these concerts keep moving people to tears
The orchestra shuffles onto the stage and members take their seats. The concertmaster plays an A, and the rest of the group tunes. It's like any other Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recital, until five men walk onto the stage to join them, and the hall erupts in rapturous applause.
The strings swell in the opening passages of Blóðberg, and I can't help it: I'm immediately crying. This is the experience of seeing Sigur Rós live with an orchestra – over the two-plus-year tour, reports of audience members weeping have been common worldwide.
It's not difficult to understand why – the group's sweeping, grandiose music, sung largely in Icelandic and the invented Hopelandic, is elevated in this setting, reaching what feels like an otherworldly plane. It might sound dramatic, but this is the kind of music that feels like it contains all the truths of the world.
The core Sigur Rós trio is expanded with a touring member; the fifth man is British conductor and composer Robert Ames, who rearranged much of the music for this orchestral tour. Ames leads with palpable joy, and the four musicians are positioned in the middle of the orchestra, blending in with their concert blacks. The effect is that they all appear as one unit, rather than the orchestra being an addition. Indeed, in the purely instrumental sections, you'd be forgiven for forgetting this was not simply an orchestral concert.
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Many of these new arrangements are string-heavy, but other details peep through: a muted trumpet in Starálfur adds texture, and a glockenspiel sprinkles a dash of whimsy and magic throughout the evening. Frontman Jónsi's signature bowed guitar, often harsh and discordant, provides a striking contrast to the orchestral beauty around it. Now 50, Jónsi's high, bell-like voice still sounds gorgeous, even when a rasp creeps in – the occasional cracking might make it all even more emotional.
The immersive two-set show focuses on the band's slower, more cinematic tunes, which begin to blend and blur. The spirited kick of Sé Lest, featuring a circus-esque brass section, and the thundering percussion at the climax of Hoppípolla, give much-needed jolts of energy.
It feels like a privilege to see this band's music performed in this setting, and it works so well that it's hard to imagine it was ever any other way. No words are spoken throughout, until the very end: 'Thank you,' Jónsi says. Takk to them, too.
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The lively, thoughtful writing maintained across the episodes touches on many things that were acceptable once, but have in recent times become unacceptable. Were the young men on the boat who drowned "heroes or pedos"? What is acceptable male behaviour attracts a laser focus, while other issues crop up as well. Like distrust of outsiders, the perils of a lack of impartiality in police investigations, and the number of unsolved disappearances of women and girls. Despite the critique of masculine attitudes and behaviour, the through-line is relatively even-handed, nonetheless. We return at regular intervals to the rugged headlands outside Evelyn Bay. Battlements of striated cliffs with deep caves that could prove deadly to those who don't keep on eye on the changing tides. They also hold dark secrets that are, until the closing moments of this stylish and engrossing drama, tightly held. The further south along the east Australian coast, the darker, denser and twistier the trees and plants become. The arcing wide beaches of the Pacific shore to the north are fewer and further between, replaced by small, closeted coves. It makes an ideal location for a murder mystery that explores the people who have chosen to make their lives there, and the visitors it receives. The natural setting here suggests a labyrinth of secrets to unravel. The latest page-to-screen adaptation from crime novelist Jane Harper is set on the gorgeous coast of Tasmania, from which, as we now expect in her work, the human drama she portrays draws meaning. The landscape analogy doesn't always work. Beautiful as they were, the Otways and Dandenongs locations as clue to meaning in Force of Nature didn't work as effectively as locations they did in The Dry, the author's immensely popular first book. Landscape as character has become a clichéd term for how the Australian films set in our sprawling outdoor spaces deliver. The British outsider perspective that best-selling and award-winning author Harper brings to her Australian home may just enhance this attribute. Like The Dry, The Survivors concerns a homecoming. It was long ago when Kieran (Charlie Vickers) moved away from Evelyn Bay, the fictional name of his hometown in Tasmania, but not quite long enough to put a safe distance between him and the tragedy that occurred at that time during a wild storm. As he and his partner Mia (Yerin Ha), also a former local, rapidly discover 15 years later. Despite the joys of having a baby daughter, the hurt, injured and confused feelings within families and the community rise to the surface as a sombre anniversary of young lives lost approaches. 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