Claude says:Recorded with producer Ken Thomas in 1998–99, this was Sigur Rós's commercial breakthrough and the first album with keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson — a shift from Von's ambient sprawl to Jónsi's cello-bowed guitar and double string octet. The cover sketch by Gotti Bernhöft is done entirely in ballpoint pen, and the string parts on "Starálfur" are palindromic. He caught it a full decade after release in March 2009 and lived inside "Svefn-g-englar" and "Ólsen Ólsen" hard for a few months, then let it go until a brief, sharp return this year.