Warthur
This second release from Runaljod continues the emphasis on multi-instrumentalist Kvitrafn's ambient dark folk compositions combined with haunting layered vocals from Gaahl and Lindy Fay Hella, but expands the sonic universe of the band. Appropriately enough for an album named for the World-Ash on which different realms hang, there's a strong world music influence here, perhaps filtered through inspirations like Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn. Not for Wardruna the limiting confines of a narrowly-defined folk tradition - instead, here they put their folk influences in the wider context, celebrating their heritage not as a single culture standing alone but as one voice in a chorus of many. The end result is simultaneously local and traditional whilst at the same time global and universal - not bad for an attempt to take in all worlds in the sweep of a single album.