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Review: Eivør/Sylvaine, Thekla
A magnificent double bill of two great singer/songwriters who navigate parallel musical paths and have both been taken to heart by metal audiences, guaranteeing minimal mainstream media attention in this country despite their huge potential appeal. Nonetheless, this was the first show on the UK tour to sell out and, like all out-of-town acts at the Thekla, Sylvaine and Eivør are both delighted to find themselves playing aboard a boat.
First up is Norway’s Sylvaine, who usually plays with a full band and is renowned for her brand of Alcest-style blackgaze. Tonight, she’s just one woman with a guitar – and, occasionally, without a guitar, giving a solo vocal performance. Her beautiful clear voice carries stripped-down versions of songs from her Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone and more recent Nova albums as well as folky material from her latest EP, Eg Er Framand. L’Appel du vide (The Call of the Void) proves a particular highlight and she concludes with a lovely unaccompanied rendition of the traditional Norwegian folk song (“the oldest one there is”) Eg veit i himmerik ei borg.
is needed now More than ever
Eivør’s brought the full Faroese band who play on her superb new album Enn (Still): drummer and percussionist Per I. Højgaard Petersen, Mattias Kapnas on electric piano and synths and Mikael Blak on upright bass and vocoder (remember that?). Naturally, she’s keen to play this new material and winds up performing the entire album in two halves (side A and side B, obviously) with plenty of audience favourites in between. Her soaring voice is on magnificent form as she opens the show with Ein klóta. She’s also a confident and comfortable performer with an easy audience rapport, even managing to coax a loud Faroese singalong during the rockin’ Upp Úr Øskuni.
There’s a break from Enn for Let it Come and Skyscrapers (“There are no skyscrapers on the Faroe Islands,” she reminds us) and she reaches for the bodhrán for the signature Trøllabundin, which gets a huge cheer of recognition. Eventually it’s back to Enn for side B, beginning with the standout title track, written, Eivør informs us, “in a parking lot in Iceland,” which somehow robs the song of a bit of its magic.
There’s no grandstanding from the excellent band, who put themselves at the service of these songs, Mattias Kapnas’s atmospheric piano and synth contributions proving particularly effective. Underemployed drummer Per I. Højgaard Petersen also clearly relishes the opportunity to rock out when the occasion demands.
Old favourite Gullspunnin provides a powerful climax to this exceptional show, but they’re inevitably brought back for an allegedly unrehearsed encore of Falling Free (not to be confused with Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’), which sees Eivør at her most Kate Bush-esque. Expect to see her in a much bigger venue upon her promised return to Bristol.
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: October 2024
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