Xiu Xiu - Unclouded Sky (2014)

During the summer of 2013, Xiu Xiu founder Jamie Stewart and producer Shahzad Ismaily (Yoko Ono, Feist, Arooj Aftab, Bonnie Prince Billy) traveled to Sigur Rós’s personal studio in Iceland. Having access to the space for only one day, Stewart worked on setting down their interpretations of American and Caribbean spirituals using a 1953 Silvertone guitar given to them by their father (producer Michael Stewart), the man who introduced them to religious thought and folk music.

The resulting album, Unclouded Sky, explores themes of death and faith over the course of nine songs originally composed between 1850 and 1920, which are interspersed with field recordings Stewart made in the jungle of Guyana on a bird watching trip in 2011.