Joachim Badenhorst & Mógil - Adventa

2019 release

Sounds, tones and lyrics of this album are inspired by the Icelandic classic "Aðventa" by Gunnar Gunnarsson, a saga about friendship, reliability, trust and harmony with nature.
Every year in the dark and icy December, the farmhand Benedict, his dog Leó and the bellwether Eitill wander through the Icelandic high mountains to find lost sheep and save them from frostbite or starvation.

Joachim Badenhorst & Mógil create a musical audio film about Nordic landscapes, ice, snow, cold, isolation, winds, elemental forces, finiteness, but also intimacy, friendship, warmth, silence, hope and dreams.
Mógil is an Icelandic-Belgian ensemble whose music blends contemporary classical, folk, jazz, minimal and post-rock into its own universe.
The world of Mógil is atmospheric, intimate and mysterious. Voices and instruments combine to form a unity. The tension between the crystal clear soprano of Heiða Árnadóttir and the contemporary instrumentation without percussion and double bass creates a characteristic sound, but not only through the timbre of the instruments, the interaction of voice, clarinet, violin, guitar, trumpet and keyboards, but especially through the individual playing art of the musicians Mógil convinces with her very own style. The musical concept comes from the pen of Joachim Badenhorst. He composes 11 of 13 works, which are written on the skin of the musicians, and creates fine, carefully staged sound images.
Heiða Árnadóttir is the author of the lyrics, only "Uppsprettu lind" goes back to the original by Gunnar Gunnarsson.
Gunnar Gunnarsson [May 18, 1889 - November 21, 1975] is an Icelandic author who wrote mainly in Danish. He grew up in poverty in Eastern Iceland but went to Denmark at the age of 18, determined to become a writer. He returned to Iceland in 1939, as world known author and built a mansion at Skriðuklaustur in his home valley which now houses a cultural center in his memory.
Gunnarsson is often regarded as one of Iceland's most important writers. His most famous and widely read work is the short story "Aðventa" [The Good Shepherd], first published in 1936 and available in several languages.

This album is based after " Aðventa ", which belongs to the most beautiful stories of the ending year. Mógil interprets scenes from this short story and reveals a new world of experience inside the listener.

The result is an extraordinary, contemplative album with quiet, but also budding tones, which can not only be heard in the silent season.