It's an orchestral take on medieval Icelandic literature.
Sigur Rós have announced the release of new orchestral album ‘Odin’s Raven Magic’ and shared ‘Dvergmál’ – the first track to arrive from the record.
The new record sees the band collaborating with Icelandic music legend Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and Steindór Andersen, one of Iceland’s most foremost chanters of traditional narrative.
It focuses on Hilmarsson’s fascination with medieval Icelandic literature – specifically the tale of Hrafnagaldur Óðins, or Odin’s Raven Magic, which is named after the Norse god’s two ravens that are said to have flew over the Earth to bring information back to him.
Dvergmál out now. https://t.co/0UMlTHLjXN pic.twitter.com/KS41U9uXVF
— sigur rós (@sigurros) October 23, 2020
The band originally recorded an orchestral take on the tale for the Reykjavik Arts Festival in 2002, but the new offering sees them employing the talents of the Schola Cantorum of Reykjavik and L’Orchestre des Laureats du Conservatoire national de Paris.
Check out the tracklisting in full below.
1. Prologus
2. Alföður orkar
3. Dvergmál
4. Stendur æva
5. Áss hinn hvíti
6. Hvert stefnir
7. Spár eða spakmál
8. Dagrenning
“Hrafnagaldur Óðins has lots of interpretation and implications that fire up the imagination… It’s a very visual poem, with images all about falling down, and a world freezing from north to south,” Hilmarsson said.
“It was an apocalyptic warning. Perhaps the people of the time felt it in their skins. Today, of course, Iceland is involved in environmental issues surrounding hydro-electric power and the destruction of the highlands. We are being warned again.”
The new album will arrive on December 4 and you can pre-order it here.
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