Sigur Rós announce orchestral album with lead piece "Dvergmál"

The new album will follow on from the Icelandic group's 2019 album Ágætis byrjun - A Good Beginning (20th Anniversary Edition).

Odin's Raven Magic was created in collaboration with Icelandic musician Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and fisherman Steindór Andersen, who is one of Iceland's most respected chanters of traditional narrative. The album features contributions from the Schola Cantorum of Reykjavik and L’Orchestre des Laureats du Conservatoire national de Paris.

The majority of orchestral and choral arrangements were put together by former member Kjartan Sveinsson and Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir (of the band amiina).

Sigur Rós' new LP was created out of Hilmarsson's fascination with medieval Icelandic literature, specifically a poem called Hrafnagaldur Óðins, which roughly translates to Odin's Raven Magic. The tale is named after the Norse god Odin's two ravens. The poem was said to be a fabrication back in 1867 by Norweigian scholar Sophus Bugge, but scholars restored it as an official addition to the Edda (two Icelandic manuscripts that are the sources of Norse mythology and Skáldic poetry) in 2002.

Hilmarsson says of Hrafnagaldur Óðins, "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."

The band first recorded an orchestral take on the Icelandic poem for the Reykjavik Arts Festival in 2002.

Tracklist:

1. Prologus
2. Alföður orkar
3. Dvergmál
4. Stendur æva
5. Áss hinn hvíti
6. Hvert stefnir
7. Spár eða spakmál
8. Dagrenning