Alasdair Roberts Og Völvur

★★★★

The Old Fabled River DRAG CITY. CD/DL/LP

Ethereal Scottish troubadour entwines with Nordic collective.

Originally convened to accompany Roberts in concert, Völvur is the brainchild of Oslobased Hans Kjorstad, whose dextrous fiddle weaves around woodwinds, bowed guitar, percussion and electronics to fashion courtly, occasionally wraithlike Scandi-Celtic chamber-folk arrangements. The ensemble’s name references an apocalyptic Old Norse text – Völuspá, The Prophecy Of The Seeresses – but rather than dramatic intimations of Ragnarök, The Old Fabled River deals only in wistful enchantment, with four, typically bardic, otherworldly Roberts originals augmented by traditional ballads and a brace of Norwegian hymnals, achingly emoted by saxophonist Marthe Lea. Opener Hymn Of Welcome sets the tone, a delicately-spun instrumental preamble ushering in Roberts’ reedy rumination on mortality and new beginnings, his vertiginous vocal melody wreathed in a fjord mist of clarinets and violins, while the traditional revenant ballad Sweet William’s Ghost, like much else here, is a paradigm of restrained, spectral poignancy.