We are so happy to announce that Umbra has been chosen to showcase at the Folkelarm festival in Oslo in November! We will be performing at the Riksscenet on Friday Nov 25th and will be joined by some beautiful other nordic artists during the festival. Take a look at Folkelarm.no for more!
Our new album, BJARGRÚNIR, is out now! We are extremely proud of the outcome, the result of 3 years’ (or more in fact) worth of research, trying out different kinds of arrangements during performances, going back and forth with every detail and putting all of our hearts into the project. The album contains in total 16 tracks; folk songs and ballads - including both original compositions and arrangements of old tunes from old written transcriptions or tape recordings. The oldest text on the album is from the 13th century. On six of the tracks our good friends Matthías Hemstock and Eggert Pálsson played percussion. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by tonmeister Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir and is released via labels Dimma and Nordic Notes (CD) and distributed on streaming platforms via Sony Music Iceland.
Photography: Lilja Birgisdóttir
Artwork and layout: Ingibjörg Oddsdóttir
We just came back home from a fantastic trip to Göteborg, Sweden, where we played at the Nordic Folk Alliance showcase festival and conference.
We went together with our talented colleagues and friends Svavar Knútur and Blood Harmony, with our label manager at Dimma, and with delegates from Iceland Music Export. We met so many amazing musicians and people working in the folk music industry in the nordic countries,made a lot of new friends and feel truly (truly!) blessed to belong to such a cool community. Many thanks to Icelandic Music Export for their support and part in creating this event 🔥❤️
Here is the first single “Stóðum tvö í túni” from our upcoming album “Bjargrúnir”.
Composer, Lyricist: Traditional
Double Bass: Alexandra Kjeld
Celtic Harp: Arngerður María Árnadóttir
Violin: Guðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdóttir
Vocal: Lilja Dögg Gunnarsdóttir
Percussion: Matthias M.D. Hemstock
Video: Blair Alexander
Mastering Engineer, Mixing Engineer and Recording Engineer: Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir
We have been doing a lot of background and preparatory work for the past weeks, namely in preparation for our new (4th) album BJARGRÚNIR, which will be out in May. The title of the album derives from Sigurdrífumál from the Poetic Edda (13th c.), and is one of the many magical runes that the valkyrie Sigurdrífa suggested to Sigurður fáfnisbani (Sigurd/Sigfried) that he learn in order to aid women in labour. The album is one big labour of love, celebrating Icelandic folk music and folk ballads, and in a way highlighting the female experience and inter-generational trauma. We can’t wait to present it to you all.
The first single will be out in April and more on that very soon (photo clue)…
