Eivør – Ancestral Creatress and the review of her 2024 album “Enn”

Opening up the album with minimal piano and Eivør’s ethereally beautiful vocals is the track Ein Klóta. For those of us coming to Eivør’s work from her globally famous track Trollabundin – this is a smart opening track reminiscent of the trance like qualities of Trollabundin yet also slowly introducing us to Eivør as she is now. The track develops into a fuller sound about halfway through, uplifting your soul and making you absolutely certain of the divine qualities of Eivør’s timbre. This track sounds like what you hear if Heaven is real and you made it there.

Next up is Jarðartrá, serving some pulsating beats as the intro opens into a darker kind of vocal from Eivør, what she is saying I do not know, and I do not care. Okay maybe I care a bit, because I did manage to find a translation online here, and the lyrics do suggest a lamentation that therefore matches with the darker undertones of this track.

Hugsi Bert Um Teg comes gushing in with an almost sparkly 80’s vibe, definitely a turn upwards in the tonality of the album. Its reminiscent of Florence or Sia if they sang in Faroese. And now I know where to find the translations, I can reveal this is a love song which therefore makes a lot of sense of why it turned sparkly and upbeat. Finding out the lyrics seems to remove a bit of the mysticism inherent in experiencing Eivør as an English speaking, non-Faroese speaking person. But for the purposes of this review, I shall continue to demystify myself.

Minimal piano returns to open up the next song Purpurhjarta, which in my now minimally educated mind translates to Purple heart. Lets see if I’m right? Yes i am! The track itself has a mournful sound, Eivør’s lyrics buttressed by sparse, meaningful piano notes and strings. It is pretty but not one of my personal highlights of the album. It’s a calming, chill kind of song that makes you sit in reflection of your life, however a more special moment on the album for me comes in the next song, and the title track, Enn.

If you’ve seen Frozen 2 you might be familiar with Kulning, or maybe you are just a fan of ancient Swedish herding calls, whatever the case, Enn opens up with Eivør kulning and it is a body tingling sound experience that excites me all over when I hear it. The song soon provides us with a nice steady four to the floor backing beat for Eivør’s verse, and I can clearly see why this is the song the album is named for. This is a stand out song, totally haunting, danceable, beautiful and not to be missed. There is a little melody interspersed inside the track, tiny little echoes using Eivør’s voice sitting on each side of the track that I find absolutely thrilling for some unknown reason.

It is so thrilling in fact, that I’m not going to look up the lyrics on this. The sound of this song is too special for any demystification for me. The song belies the absolutely slick production of this album as well, with Eivør’s vocals sitting perfectly on top of the pads and backing vocals expertly increasing the overall feeling of this song. What is that feeling? I don’t know. Its good though. It feels good. That is the thing about Eivor, she is profoundly difficult to explain but extremely easy to feel.

Seeing as I am attempting to write an album review of Eivør’s album Enn, I feel compelled to at least try to describe the feeling I get from the song Enn. So here it is, the feeling is I’m in a cave, but it’s in the future, and everyone is happy and all of our needs are met. It’s beauty and abundance. It’s peace-giving and peace-foretelling. If this is who humans are, then humans are good. There it is. That’s the feeling.

Livsandin comes in with a full sound of several Eivør’s singing at once, and immediately the song is on a downturn, I think the album itself switches track to track between highs and lows, however it is never jarring, and more just a natural sway and spectrum of human emotions. As for Livsandin, it is nice but one of the tracks more easily forgettable especially coming in after the powerhouse track that is Enn. Livsandin is an airy, electronic mediation of a track that shimmers but doesn’t quite sparkle for me.

I probably don’t think so much about this track because it follows and precedes my two most favourite songs of this album which brings me to the next song, Upp Ur Oskuni.

Immediately opening up with Eivør on a growl type of vocal, it’s a tribal, animalistic, absolutely affecting introduction. My whole body goes up in tingles. Someone explain this to me please! At a steady pace, Eivør breaks into her prettier kind of singing in the verse, only to return to the stunning and special throat singing in each chorus. The tempo is slowed down compared to other songs, which only adds to the creeping tribal sensation offered up on this track. Midway through, Eivør’s voice is backed by a wide chorus of backing vocals but this part is just leading us back into her growl vocals which I find absolutely enchanting. Is it because not very many women explore this kind of use of our voice? Is it Eivør’s expertise or is it the specialness of it all at once? Once again, I am refusing to translate whatever this song is about. It’s too special to me for any kind of demystification.

The 8^th and final track on the song needs no translation however, entitled Gaia. Gaia is a deep feeling, simple yet evocative song that showcases the kind of forgotten memory sensation, the groundswell of nature sensation and the tingly sensation you cannot help but experience as a human listening to this Eivør. It is actually truly remarkable how profound of an affect Eivør’s voice can have on one person. As the song Gaia slowly fades away, I am awestruck by the force of nature that Eivør is. Highly Highly recommend you give this album a listen.

Lucky me – I get to see Eivør live in a couple of months when she comes to Brisbane this November 14th at the Brightside!

Eivør also supports Heilung the night before at Riverstage, November 13.

Tickets for Eivør in Australia are here

And you can buy Eivør Enn album here

More links to Eivør here