27 January 2025 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – words by Alessandro Ambrosi – pictures by Bec Harbour
Paraphrasing Boromir from Lord of the Rings, “One does not simply call this a concert” – It’s an experience for the senses – The visual, the colours, the sounds of the multiple instruments and the voices blend together for nearly 2 hours of “Viking” music that is bound to take you places if you allow it to do so.
You will find everything, from nature and its beauty and immense power to death and love and birth.
Einar alongside Lindy-Fay and Gaahl started Wardruna in 2003, with the latter leaving on amicable terms in 2015. So, it took 22 years, a few albums and a massive contribution for the soundtrack and score of the very successful Vikings TV show, to have them finally hit our shores.
Wardruna – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
With people starting to queue up since mid afternoon it’s fair to say that there is a level of anticipation for what’s ahead. Once in the hall we can see the stage already set with all the instruments carefully placed and the band logo projected over a red background.
Wardruna have been using a large cut-up backdrop and side panels that recall a patchwork of leaves, conceptually simple but with great effect when, as we will see during the concert, they get lit up in different colours and imagery.
There are seven musicians on stage, the two main singers, Einar and Lindy-Fay in front, and the other five in the back on a raised platform that runs almost the whole length of the stage. The familiar harp of ‘Kvitravn’ – White Raven, with the giant shadow John Stenersen projected on the backdrop, starts the concert and just like that everyone is hooked for the next 2 hours in the dreamlike and spiritual dimension of Wardruna.
Wardruna – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Hertan’ – The Heart, from the freshly released BIRNA, turns the stage blue, and its hypnotic beginning quickly transforms into a hymn to the connection between men and the power of nature.
‘Skugge’ – Shadow focuses on Einar vocals whilst Lindy-fay hypnotically dances to the beat of the drums whilst the song grows in energy.
The scenography, as already mentioned, is simple but has a great impact: images and animations are occasionally projected on the curtain behind the band, but for most of the concert the shadows of the musicians are projected, who momentarily become almost abstract giants.
Rapid changes of light project now one musician now the other, and the fast, almost stroboscopic scene changes, while the rhythmic percussions keep the rhythm underneath, hypnotize everyone present. Speaking of these effects of light and shadow, another choice as simple as it is effective comes a few songs later when the shadow projected on the background is not given by a light pointed at Einar but is a film that imitates the shadow games already seen. The result is that the “shadow” moves independently of who seems to cast it and, in fact, the shadow often moves before its owner.
Wardruna – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
On ‘Solingen’, – Circle of the Sun, a light appears on the cloth that moves in a circle, painting a ring while the band continues with its narration. In short, the effects are conceptually simple, but the result is very effective and complementary to the music, creating a complete sensory experience.
The setlist moves back and forth between the band’s albums, exploring (almost) the entire discography between ‘Fehu’, ‘Tyr’ with its ominous goat horns and the single ‘Himinndotter’.
There is also an incursion into Skald, an album in which the band leader plays the role of the skald, remaining alone on stage in the company of his trusty Kravik Lira, an ancient instrument that accompanied these Scandinavian bards.
Behind Einar, the other musicians also alternate different instruments, as well as accompanying by singing, showing mastery in juggling a multitude of ancient instruments. The concert flies by in an instant, song after song listened to in respectful silence, interspersed with thunderous applause.
Only after fourteen songs the theatre lights come on, the audience launches into a thunderous ovation with Einar addressing those present for the first time.
Wardruna – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
“Firstly, a heartfelt thank you for coming is expressed by all, and then the value and meaning of Wardruna – despite the ancient suggestions, the band does not want to ‘travel through time’ but to give value to elements of the past that can still have an important and current meaning. Many things from the past should rightly remain in the past, but there are some things that still deserve to have a voice,” he says. before introducing a song that recalls the ancient custom of singing for the dead.
Obviously, we are talking about ‘Helvegen’, a song that has become perhaps the best-known of the group, certainly among the most beloved, and which also for its meaning, as well as for its sounds, has a very strong emotional charge.
At the end, there can only be a long, long round of applause. “I have a feeling you want one more song” Einar says.
This time alone, once again with his Kravik Lyre in hand, ‘Snake Pit Poetry’, a song written for the well-known TV series Vikings that retraces the last moments of the life of the legendary figure of Ragnar Lothbrok concludes the evening.
A Wardruna concert is more than just a performance, it is a total experience, deeply spiritual and emotional, a “show” that cannot be compared to any other concert in the traditional sense of the term. Until next time.
Skål!
