Note: This is part two of an n part series.Read part one: Soundtracks, Part 1: Michael Brook, An Inconvenient Truth

Angels of the Universe by Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, with contributions form Sigur Ros.

This record makes me feel like I'm in Iceland. And I've never been to Iceland. I've been wanting to go to Iceland for at least five years now, since I saw an Iceland Air flight & hotel package advertised on the web. I almost went. And then things in my life changed. Since then, I've seen no less than a half-dozen travel shows on Iceland, the partying in Reykjavik, the hot springs, the trips out into the frozen wasteland. I still want to go. This record reminds me of that each time it comes up in a playlist.

I've listened to this record the past few winters, walking to and from the subway, through wind and snow and ice and rain and burning ears. I wish I could track each listen, but I'm confident I didn't give any of these tracks a listen between April and October. It just sounds cold and bleak. And I mean it sounds cold and bleak in only the very best way.

There's something kind of hopeless and inevitable about most of the tracks on the record, and I find this really comforting. It's mostly string arrangements with the odd, spare guitar or violin melody floating through the middle of it all.

I recommend this soundtrack highly. I think a lot of people probably pick it up because of the Sigur Ros contributions to the last two tracks, which are rather nice. But the first fifteen Sigur-Ross-free tracks are really what make the work worth your attention.