The old fabled river

"By the time [Hans Kjorstad's] newly named Völvur band played alongside Roberts as part of Celtic Connections, they had new material enough for this album, comprising four original songs from Roberts and four traditional. The two Norwegian hymns, sung by Marthe Lea, are wonderful; both put her vocals at the fore, with 'Nu Rinner Solen Opp' creating an eerie, swirling landscape of bows scratching strings, droning and meandering clarinet and loose percussion. 'Nu Solen Går Ned' is more spacious and uses muted plucked strings with saxophone to create a sparsely beautiful, disjointed sound. Elsewhere, the same instruments create a more free-flowing backing that is at once consistent and diverse. Roberts' new songs focus on the beauty of life's ebb and flow and the spirit of music entwined within ... There is plenty to enjoy throughout these eight tracks and it's all performed with love and skill".

"Originally covened to accompany Roberts in concert, Völvur is the brainchild of Oslo-based Hans Kjorstad, whose dextrous fiddle weaves around woodwinds, bowed guitar, percussion and electronics to fashion courtly, occasionally wraithlike Scandi-Celtic chamber-folk arrangements ... 'The Old Fabled River' deals in wistful enchantment, with four, typically bardic, otherworldly Roberts originals augmented by traditional ballads and a brace of Norwegian hymnals, achingly emoted by saxophonist Marthe Lea. Opener 'Hymn Of Welcome' sets the tone, a delicately-spun instrumental preamble ushering in Roberts' reedy rumination on mortality and new beginnings, his vertiginous vocal melody wreathed in a fjord mist of clarinets and violins".