During the summer of 2013, Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart and producer Shahzad Ismaily traveled to Sigur Rós’s personal studio in Iceland. Having access to the space for only one day, Stewart worked on setting down his interpretations of American and Caribbean spirituals using a 1953 Silvertone guitar given to him by his father (producer Michael Stewart), the man who introduced him 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.
