EINAR SELVIK
Wardruna frontman uncovers a continuity in our age of isolation
Wardruna frontman calls upon continuity in an age of strife
FOLLOWING A PHENOMENAL
rendition of Warduna’s Völuspá, accompanied by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for the Bergen International Festival’s opening concert, former Gorgoroth drummer turned hero of Nordic folk music Einar Selvik is up against a similarly opposing backdrop tonight. This time his performance takes place in a 13thcentury banquet hall, Håkonshallen, set in the Bergenhus Fortress,
Norway’s largest medieval building.
The massive soundscapes of Einar’s hugely influential Wardruna have been stripped away tonight, leaving the bard exposed with nothing but a handful of traditional Viking instruments. Yet one of his most intimate and primitive concerts to date is, ironically, also the most modern and ‘distant’. Nobody is in physical attendance, his audience tuning in from the comfort of their own homes.
He begins the performance with Skald,
played upon his trusty lyre, moving into Ormagardskraedi, aka ‘Snakepit Poetry’, the song Einar composed for Ragnar Lothbrok’s death scene in the History Channel’s Vikings. He’s then joined by his Nordvegen project collaboators – Enslaved members Ivar Bjørnson, Iver Sandøy and Håkon Vinje, and Hardanger fiddler Silje Solberg – as well as Wardruna bandmate Lindy-fay Hella to perform Wardruna’s epic runic poem, Fehu.
Somehow the raw emotive harmonies of Einar and Lindy-fay, and the primal instrumentation that accompany them, still resonate through the digital landscape. Their awe-inspiring, authentic renditions of Viking-era music can be felt even through the filter of modernity, the old Norse language acting not as a barrier but a great unifier, allowing the music to speak for itself and resonate deeply on a visceral level.
Einar wanders through his back catalogue, breezing into Hugsjá’s Ni Mødre Av Sol and a Norse rewrite of Enslaved’s Return To Yggdrasil. He then whips out another type of lyre, a reconstruction of the oldest example of a Scandinavian stringed instrument, to emote a few more tracks from 2008’s Skald, including another rendition of Voluspá, now with accompaniment by Lindy-fay. Einar treats us to a demonstration of the goat horn, an instrument with a history of continuous usage for more than 1,500 years, and a live performance of one of Wardruna’s latest tracks, Grá. Finally, he leaves us with Helvegen, “a song about crossing over and a song about letting go”, and an insatiable desire to resurrect the rich traditions of song that were so integral to our ancestors, particularly at such a turbulent time. As Einar explains: “Singing is medicine. Music is medicine.” ALICE PATTILLO