Pitchfork

The glacial pace of Sigur Rós' music makes for easy comparisons to the landscape of Iceland, but non-Icelandic fans don't have to resign themselves to just imagining those mountains and fjords anymore, thanks to a new book documenting the band's 2006 tour of their home country.

On June 1, music quarterly Artist in Residence (A+R) will unleash In a Frozen Sea: A Year With Sigur Rós. Longtime fan Jeff Anderson created the book, A+R's first, by following the band on the last leg of its tour in support of Takk last year. Anderson collected observations and conducted exclusive interviews to go with the 32-page book's photographs of the band, the landscape, and combinations of both.

In a Frozen Sea comes packaged in a 12" vinyl jacket and will be available from A+R's website and select stores. A+R will also release the book in a special edition that comes with 12" LP versions of Ágætis Byrjun, ( ), Takk, and Smaskifa, which is previously unreleased in the format. The special edition will have a limited run of 5,000.

Those who just can't wait until June for In a Frozen Sea can visit A+R's site for an interactive Sigur Rós experience. Though it doesn't seem to be up just yet, the website will offer Sigur Rós music and videos as well as message boards for fans. Aspiring artists can also submit their own music for feature on the site, and a panel of judges-- including Sigur Rós and producers Alan Moulder and Flood-- will decide which artists make the cut.