BARDSPEC: Ambient Project Of Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved, Skuggsjá) Shares “Fire Tongue” From Hydrogen Debut

This June, By Norse will release the debut album Hydrogen by BARDSPEC, the ambient project/band led by Enslaved composer/guitarist Ivar Bjørnson. In advance of its release, today you can get a first audiovisual glimpse into the album via a David Hall-created new video for “Fire Tongue.”





aving launched at Roadburn in 2015, BARDSPEC has since evolved into a full-fledged band, with Today Is The Day’s Steve Austin on guitars/effects, David Hall presenting the live visual aspect of the project, with a stunning layout created by Josh Graham (Soundgarden, Neurosis, IIVII, etc.)

BARDSPEC combines stirring, hallucinatory synth-sounds with mercurial guitar effects and hypnotic rhythms that navigate illusory landscapes. Field recordings, and other found-sounds also drift and evaporate into the ether. Working intuitively with these elements and with sharpened senses, attuned to inner impulses, this is immersive music, that can exist anywhere, and anytime within the minds of the listener.

Whilst BARDSPEC might essentially be the same brain and personality making the music, compared to Enslaved, it is a widely different entity. Thematically and sonically, BARDSPEC is about minimizing, subtracting, and meditating upon the simplest essence of “things;” the single points exemplified through the song titles, like “Bone,” “Salt,” and so on; the basic elements and foundations that make up the whole. There is an element of “space” in the music as well as the artwork, as a representation of the inner workings of the mind and the subconscious.

BARDSPEC is inspired by the German masters Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultze, and Conrad Schnitzler in addition to contemporary ambient music like Norwegian one-man-band Biosphere and abstract modern electronic music like When, as well as the electronic/industrial-driven metal like Godflesh.

Roadburn Festival will play host to a public listening session of Hydrogen by BARDSPEC, a chance for people to hear the album from start to finish in advance of the official release date. The event will take place April 21st. More information will be available on the Roadburn website.

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Tags:  Enslaved    

Lindsay OConnor     April 10, 2017