Eivør Pálsdóttir is an artist I stumbled across recently, and literally stopped what I was doing in order to hear her sing.
I was going to a whole post about her, about "throat singing", about the use of Celtic influenced music in movies and television (see also Clannad - Theme from Harry's Game), but I think I would rather just step back and let her and her music take you on the same journey she took me on. Enjoy.
If you want, here's here bio, directly from her website: Eivor
"Eivør’s home, the Faroe Islands, is a small island country in the North Atlantic, which was populated by Scandinavians in the Viking Age. Originally incorporated into the Norwegian kingdom in the medieval period, the Faroese have found themselves subject to foreign rule for over 1000 years. Today, the country is a semi-autonomous part of the Danish kingdom, but it has had its own government since 1948. Eivør is strongly inspired by the Faroese natural scenery and traditional culture. It is a land of extremes, full of contrasts, with heavy, dark winters, and bright, joyful summers. Growing up in a small village among the characteristic steep cliffs and grassy hills, Eivør is deeply inspired by the unique Faroese landscape and its vibrant traditional folk music. Despite centuries of foreign rule, the Faroese folk culture has persevered, especially through communal singing and dancing. This cultural resilience in the face of a harsh nature and foreign dominance strongly informs Eivør’s music: “A very strong part of Faroese culture is singing together—anywhere people gather, there will be singing,” Eivør explains. “When you listen to old Faroese traditional music, it’s sung acapella and takes you back to its Renaissance roots. It’s pure, expressive, and untamed.”
Eivør has cultivated her distinct guttural singing technique under inspiration from beatboxing, throat-singing, and heavy metal growling to convey the untamed expressiveness inherent to traditional Faroese music and culture. It is a primal call to return to her roots in natural landscape of her birthplace."
