NCH, Dublin

This tour is the collective effort of the Bedroom Community, an Icelandic record label formed in 2006 by Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nico Muhly and Ben Frost. Here, these three and Sam Amidon form the core of a band, playing tracks from their various solo albums.

The result is less of a fully integrated outfit and more of a musical project. The sound is experimental and adventurous. Double bass, viola, violin and trombone form an organic spine for electronic effects, bursts of percussive samples, unpredictable piano lines and challenging vocals. The problematic acoustics of the NCH do this no favours, and the sound-desk never quite gets to grips with the boomy room; the electronics have a tendency to burst in roughly, jostling more subtle melody making out of the way.

It's to the band's credit that they are experimenting with sounds to such an ambitious degree. Ideas develop and rise, taking on layers of texture, meaning and dynamic. On several tracks they lock into powerful, effective wholes, lifting the audience and the room to unearthly places, especially on the folk inspired The Only Tune. However, at other moments the set drifts and some of the music seems to be overly satisfied with its own cleverness at the expense of dynamics. I'm not sure what effect Nico Muhly was hoping to get by tousling the trombonist's hair into a micropohone but everyone on stage looked very pleased with results the audience couldn't largely hear.

This Icelandic crew cast their nets wide and some of what gets pulled up is impressive in breadth and scope, though there is more than a little indulgence at play. This is a band worth seeing, in a concert that guarantees strong opinions.