WARDRUNA Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga 12" White/Blue Vinyl (2009)

Before Wardruna were soundtracking Vikings for HBO audiences who'd never heard a joik in their lives, Einar Selvik was deep in the Norwegian wilderness recording this, the first entry in the Runaljod trilogy. Gap Var Ginnunga, named for the primordial void in Norse cosmology, arrived in 2009 and set a benchmark that most folk ambient projects are still measuring themselves against.

This is not background music. It is bone flutes, tagelharpa, animal skin drums, and Selvik's voice moving through Old Norse like it owns the language, because it does. Where black metal peers like Ulver had already moved away from the forest, Wardruna walked further in. Each rune from the Elder Futhark is given its own ritual treatment here, and the result is genuinely unsettling in the best possible way. This white and blue marbled 2LP pressing is a limited edition that does justice to music that was never meant to be convenient.

12" white and blue marbled vinyl, 2LP limited edition. Full length album. Norwegian pressing. 2009,

Fans of: Myrkur, Gaahls Wyrd, Ulver, Moonsorrow