Wardruna – Live in York 2025 – “an evening of highlights”

York Barbican 22^nd March 2025

This was an evening of highlights. From the all-too-brief looped electric cello of Jo Quail to the wonderfully friendly and appreciative black-clad audience to the variety, the consistency and the showmanship of Wardruna.

On this first visit to Jorvik (Einar Selvik calls it by it’s old name), Wardruna make an amazing variety of sounds and images, while keeping a golden thread of mood. The light show is astonishing, switching colours, casting shadows, creating contrast and the sound brings through the variety of instruments. Drone is the main thing, obviously, but drums are prominent and then the ever-present voice of leader, Einar Selvik. It’s a powerful and dramatic instrument, not that most of us know what he is singing, as he switches between forms of old Norse and more recent Norwegian. Close-up, there are lots of old instruments I can’t name – bowed ones, plucked ones, a lyre, a wooden horn the length of an alpenhorn and, stage centre, two Lurs. Huge and curved, these are the things on the front of a Lurpak butter pat and I’m delighted when they are lifted, worn and played. The sound appears to be mostly one note but it’s a good one, accompanied by chanting and drums.

There is a ritual feel to the evening, though Einar explains at the end that the band aren’t trying to time-travel and recreate Viking culture, but to continue the tradition of living with and celebrating nature through music. He talks about the importance of singing as individuals and groups, of keeping on the oral tradition, rather than letting it die out. I feel guilty about mostly singing Velvet Underground, Jonathan Richman and Brecht/Weill songs to my kids when they were babies. The next piece illustrates the point, being a song about death, singing the departed away in a ritual farewell. He goes on to close the evening with a solo lullaby about a bear, ‘Hibjornen’.

Earlier, Selvik has taken a solo spot half way through – just him and a lyre, voice hard and full, sparse plucked strings an accompaniment to the vocal melody rather than the other way round. Lindy-Fay Hella takes the lead at another point, with drums and rhythmic wood blocks. Most of the pieces are drawn from two recent albums – ‘Birna’ and ‘Kvitravn’ – hymning key Scandinavian animals, the bear and the raven, as well as second album, ‘Yggdrasil’, the tree of life. With the world-tree and the raven being features of the Odin story, Einar shows the drawing in of Norse tradition to the nature tales he mentioned. But he also loves to share the work and feeling, talking about the mutual love between the band and audience and the universality of the human need for connection to nature, trashing ideas of cultural superiority.

The whole evening was totally immersive, flowing through a hundred minutes of alien sounds in an alien language, propelled by mood, feel and glorious visuals, drawing everyone along on a huge dragging undertow of sound. Sounds and images were celebrated and communal feelings shared through joint experience. After Einar Selvik’s warm words, we all left feeling uplifted and subtly changed.