Opus

While on tour in Australia, Finnish-born Copenhagen-based Kim Rafael Nyberg, Afenginn's frontman and composer, suffered an accident that left him stranded in Tasmania for 40 days. This involuntary rest indirectly led to him writing a composition in four movements, inspired by the form of the classical symphony. It makes up the bulk of the material on this ambitious double album, recorded by the seven-piece core of Afenginn (with two new drummers replacing departed co-founder Rune Kafaed), as well as guest vocalists including Ólavur Jákupsson, a Bulgarian female choir, Ale Carr on cittern, a string quartet and sundry other guest musicians. The more wild and epic moments here might include up to 20 musicians giving their fairly thunderous all. The phrase ‘lyrics in a made-up language’ may set hazard lights flickering but it's not totally unheralded: there were certainly hints of this meticulously crafted chamber folk symphony in the dreamy soundscapes of Afenginn's fifth album Lux from 2013, which Nyberg said at the time was ‘somewhere between cinematic chamber music and Sigur Rós.’ Ranging from dreamy to jagged, and with clear references to Scandinavian folk traditions, Opus is worth the effort it takes to embrace it as a whole.