Sigur Rós Odin’s Raven Magic

Sigur Rós have announced a new album, out at the end of the year. Titled Odin’s Raven Magic, the project is an orchestral work that the band premiered at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in 2002. It’s out December 4 via Krunk/Warner Classics. Listen to “Dvergmál” and see the tracklist below.

Odin’s Raven Magic follows 2013’s Kveikur. Kjartan Sveinsson, who left the group in 2012, arranged most of the project with amiina’s Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir. The band recorded Odin’s Raven Magic with the Schola Cantorum of Reykjavík and L’Orchestre des Laureats du Conservatoire National de Paris. The work was inspired by a section of a Medieval Icelandic literary work depicting an apocalyptic banquet.

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, the band’s main collaborator on the project and an ordained pagan leader, shared more about its background:

"Hrafnagaldur Óðins [Odin’s Raven Magic] 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."

Since Kveikur, the band has been involved in a number of interdisciplinary projects. Sigur Rós made music for soundbaths, an art installation, and a dance performance, in addition to two new songs for the TV show Black Mirror. After a line of THC edibles in 2017, band put their name behind pair of CBD tinctures this year. Singer Jónsi released his new solo album Shiver at the beginning of October.

01 Prologus
02 Alföður orkar
03 Dvergmál
04 Stendur æva
05 Áss hinn hvíti
06 Hvert stefnir
07 Spár eða spakmál
08 Dagrenning