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Artist News Releases
Sigur Rós to release Odin’s Raven Magic
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 26 October 2020
Sigur Rós have announced that they will release their 2002 orchestral piece – ‘Odin’s Raven Magic’ – as an album this December.
Based on a piece of medieval literature called ‘Hrafnagaldur Óðins’ – or ‘Odin’s Raven Magic’, if you prefer – the album was created in collaboration with Icelandic musicians Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and Steindór Andersen, while the record also features Icelandic choir Schola Cantorum and Paris-based L’Orchestre Des Laureats Du Conservatoire National.
Hilmarsson explains: “‘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. 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”.
Originally commissioned for the Reykjavik Arts Festival in 2002, the piece was only performed a few times that same year and snippets of live recordings have long been shared by fans. The album version is taken from one of those 2002 performances, at the Grande Halle De La Villette in Paris.
The album is out on 4 Dec. Listen to the first track released from it, ‘Dvergmál’, here:
