The brainchild of Wardruna founder Einar Selvik and Enslaved co-founder Ivar Bjørnson, Skuggsjá is the vast, tempestuous and wholly enrapturing conceptual work that was originally commissioned in response to the 200th anniversary of Norway’s Christianity-affirming constitution.
But more than a mere attack on a document that cemented a national religion brutally enforced at the expense of far richer pagan consciousness, Skuggsjá – the Norwegian for ‘mirror’ – is a meditation on pagan history, on what’s been lost, what can be regained and the power of self-reflection, not least in an age of brute economics, false piety and inane, 24-hour media.
Featuring members Einar and Ivar’s respective bands, Skuggsjá is due to be released as an album on March 11 via Season Of Mist, and will get its UK live debut at the Coronet in Elephant & Castle on March 19 as part of the four-day London By Norse event, and we have an exclusive preview in the sublime and heart-bursting form of the track Vitkispá. Building up from Einar’s lone voice over spare percussion, it becomes a panoramic, stormblown clarion call to the elements and a paean to the raising of consciousness that’s guaranteed to lift the spirits to the point of out-of-body experience.
Raise your arms and give in to the ravishing splendour of Vitkispá below!
Visit the Skjuggsjá Facebook page here
And pre-order the album in its many manifestations here and here!
