Wardruna – Birna: Album Review

By Dominic Walsh on 24th January 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Birna is the hotly anticipated new album from Wardruna. Birna – the she-bear in Old Norse – is a work of art dedicated to the warden of the forest, nature’s caretaker, and her battles here on earth.

Release Date: 24th January 2025

Label: Music For Nations / Sony

Format: CD / Vinyl / Digital

BIRNA

Wardruna are a rare entity. For many years, they have sought to keep Old Norse stories and traditions alive. Their music is dark, brooding and emphatic; a lot like the lands they emanate from.

Birna continues the evolution of the band in that they cast their gaze over modern issues affecting our world. Musically, the Wardruna sound is as strong as ever. Their forward facing themes are as evocative as any stories from the past they have told.

HERTAN

Hertan opens Birna with a steady heart beat. Band leader, Selvik, delivers a brief incantation before the band rise from the forest floor in grand fashion. There is an awful lot to take in through the opening part of the song. Front and centre is the percussion and vocal line, but listen deeper and you will hear the voice being used in different ways. Aesthetically it has a feel of Helvegen and sets off the story of Birna majestically.

The title track uses the first of many natural soundscapes with bowed strings and more percussive beats. Lindy-Fay Hella, who has composed the music alongside Selvik, showcases her vocal talent. There is an earthy feel to the piece as it progresses and builds to a brilliant crescendo.

Ljos til Jord (Light To Earth) begins the descent of the beast into hibernation. The tempo is a little quicker and again, there is a lot going on in the music. A flowing river sounds the end of the song. Birna is an album that has incredible depth. If you navigate this depth with an open mind, you will gain so much enjoyment.

When I walk into a forest, I open my senses and listen for whatever nature cares to tell me.
Einar Selvik

Dvaledraumar

Dvaledraumar (Dorman Dreams) is genuinely one of the most glorious pieces of music this writer has ever heard. That is a bold statement, but the journey that this piece takes you on over its fifteen minute duration is truly spellbinding.

A low and calming synth adorns the opening with slow bursts of otherworldly sounds. In keeping with the theme of the heartbeat, Wardruna take the beat down to a hibernating pace (reckoned to be around nine beats a minute). The layering of sound and solemn, haunting melody evokes the feeling of slumber. Echoing vocals give the feeling of being in a cave. Dripping water drops further this notion. When the picked strings start to appear from the distance, Dvaledraumar really gets to work. It is hypnotic. Vocal flourishes alongside quicker picking and a deep, brooding bedrock make for a truly atmospheric experience.

As a single piece, Dvaledraumar might well be the best piece of music Wardruna have ever written. If you take the time to stop, close your eyes, and listen, it will blow you away. Closing soundscapes set the scene for part two of the meditation on hibernation. Jord til Ljos (Earth To Light) sees Birna coming out of hibernation with renewed focus and vigour, ready to take on the world.

The bear doesn’t need my help or any human traditional ornamentation to be its own powerful self. It is quite the opposite if one looks to past bear-traditions worth remembering. We learn, we dream of borrowing its traits and abilities. We fear, revere, and try to walk alongside but on separate paths. Respectfully, claim space and give space. However inconvenient it may be, further taming of the wild can never be the fruitful way forward. For me, it profoundly felt like the right time to give voice to the Birna, mother and shepherd of the vanishing woods.
Einar Selvik

Himinndotter

Himinndotter (Sky-Daughter) takes away the slumber and explores the idea of the bear being a celestial being. The video for the song shows the band in Rondane National Park in Norway. If Dvaledraumar had us in the darkness of the cave hibernation, Himinndotter is full of light and hope. Translated, the lyrics request the re-emergance of the bear.

Dear sister
Will you come back home?
Without breath
Life is short
The forest is bound to die
Without its shepherd

Hibjørnen (The Hibearnator) takes us back to the skaldic roots of Old Norse. With a solitary voice and a lyre, the song heads back down the meditative root. Things take a tumultuous turn with Skuggehesten (Shadow-Horse). Foreboding thunder cracks and a real edge to the vocals make Skuggehesten a haunting and mesmeric piece. Drums thump and the entire cast of players coalesce in grand union. It is probably the closest you’ll get to ‘metal’ on Birna. It is another sumptuous composition.

The rhythm of the bear embodies the very circle of life: When winter approaches, it goes to sleep in its den – back to the womb; its pulse slowing, its body encapsulated in an intermediate death. Like a lullaby, Hibjørnen takes on the perspective of the hibernating bear and its dormant dreams from inside the den. The listener returns from the den of the bear more attuned, aware and contemplative of nature’s wonders, just in time for the freshly sprung buds.
Einar Selvik

TRETALE

Tretale (The Voice of Trees) uses the picking style of Dvaledraumer but it is backed with inventive percussion that creates a unique rhythm. Deep choral voices give the song its low end with various wind instrumentation proving great melody. Tretale, coupled with Skuggehesten, create a dark duo of songs.

Lyfjaberg (Healing Mountain) closes out Birna in epic fashion. Another dark and brooding piece, Wardruna mull over the struggle and challenge of scaling a difficult mountain. And whilst it may be difficult, those that scale the summit will be granted comfort and healing. It is a fitting end to a monumentally great record.

Leave fears behind, let fall all masks
Where you are headed, they’ll be of no use

Birna is a soaring success. It takes you to places you could only imagine, in the most authentic of ways. Wardruna stay true to themselves whilst also pushing their own, always expanding, boundaries. It could well be their finest and most accomplished collection to date. Their evolution as a band, and standard bearers for Old Norse traditions are unparalleled.

Birna is performed by Einar Selvik, Lindy-Fay Hella, Eilif Gundersen, HC Dalgaard, Sondre Veland, John Stenersen, Arne Sandvoll. The album features guest appearances by Koret Artemis (Choir), Jonna Jinton (vocals and field recordings), Hans Fredrik Jacobsen (willow-bark flute), Kenneth Lien (Jaw-harp) and Iver Sandøy (backing vocals).