Vánargandr is a New Zealandic project that makes black ambient. Literally translated, Old Norse vánargandr would mean something like 'magic staff of hope'. However, there is reason to believe that gandr can also mean 'spirit'. Most importantly though, Vánargandr is one of the names for the Fenriswolf of Norse mythology, and that is probably what lent this project its name. See this article for details on the meaning of the name. Linguistic nerdry aside, though, and back to the music.

Valtivar is a promo release, and it contains a mixture of studio tracks, remixes and live material. All of it is very dark, droning ambient, with a rather obscure sound to it. "Lost in Black Waters" is perhaps a good description of it, as all tracks are very murky, and sound as if 'under water'. On the one hand, this has a nice, enveloping effect, but it also seems a consequence of the low production quality of the tracks. It sounds as if interesting things are going on in many of the tracks, but it's all just a bit too much bogged down to be able to make it out, which is a pity. The live opening track sounds very nice, and with appropriate visuals, it would be a suitable live ambient experience. On the whole though, I miss a bit of production quality and variation to make this material stand out. Right now, it sounds a bit like the minimalistic parts of Svartsinn, but a tad too obscure.

A nice promo release, and with potential, but at the moment only interesting for those deep into exploring what's going on in the dark ambient underground.

O.S.