Sigur Rós are a post-rock, alternative band from Reykjavík, Iceland. The video to their song ‘Valtari’ was written and directed by Christian Larson, and features two dancers coming together to move in interesting ways.
The start of the video builds the bleak harsh environment, with a blue/green look, the video has a washed out broken theme to it. With shots of dead plants a industrial estate and a set of an old abandoned building the cinematographer success creates that harsh bleak environment.
The man within the building, performs kind of contemporary dance, the technique of dance which allows him to to unpredictably change his rhythm, speed and direction which is done to the rhythm of the music. During the video the woman joins the contemporary dance style and continues to get closer to him, as finally they dance together in the final act of the music video. When the woman starts dancing the music changes to a lighter tone with sounds that sounds similar to bell chimes. As the couple dance together the lyrics begin and the volume and base of the music boost, as the music gets rhythmically faster and harsher, so does the dancing from couple, and the editing is done effectively to show the characters in various positions around each other.
This video is a concept style music video, this is clear as there is not a clear narrative neither is the band performing, there are simply just two characters dancing with each other, but the way the video directed and the cinematography of the music video clearly shows that there are ideas and hidden messages towards the visuals and the song. The unique choreography of flexibility and rhythm is an interesting contrast to the harsh bleak environment.
I believe that the video is about two induvials that view the world in a unquie and different way, and they have finally found someone that feels the say way, and they want to embrace this fact. At the beginning of the video, the man is dancing on his own and dances like he can feel the rhythm been produced by the environment like the bleak and pure building around him is shouting out, and he is the only one that can hear. The woman wonders into the environment sort of like his movements and dance are calling out to her and that there is an attraction pulling them together, and allowing them to dance and communicate their thoughts and feelings about the world around them in a very intermit and rhythmic way.
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