Prose Edda is based on a 13th century textbook of Icelandic poetry, but you won’t need a guide to Old Norse to appreciate it. FRKTL’s latest album is a set of electro-acoustic soundscapes, wrought from the materials of heaven and earth, so a pair of wide-frequency headphones will do just fine.
A project of the Anglo-Egyptian polymath, Sarah Badr, FRKTL has consistently impressed with tracks crafted from intricate rhythms and high doses of reverb. Prose Edda taps a Nordic vein, taking for inspiration stories of the Viking gods, and Badr extracts some truly glacial tones from her strings. There is fighting in heaven, though, and she introduces fabulously kinetic drums at the outset.
The entire project is exceptionally well executed; and, even if your knowledge of Thor comes from Marvel comics, it would not be hard to make sense of the material. It is theatrical, dynamic and possessing – just like the Northern landscape that bore the Norse creation myth. Hewn from granite and Atlantic mists, Prose Edda is a real accomplishment.