Gabbarein is a project of Cecile Hafstad, a Norwegian vocalist and sound healer, and American composer-producer Christopher Bono. The duo recorded its self-titled debut album due out April 5, 2024 on a fjord within the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Whether or not that adds an ineffable mystique or energy to the sounds captured for the songs the lead single “Ra Rising Sun” with the video produced and directed by Ragnarok Film (filmed near Trondheim, Norway at various sites including Trollkirka aka Troll Church) it looks and sounds like something from the Eddas. Hafstad sings and chants in a language that she’s “channeling” meaning they’re all sounds that made sense with the music and with the moods and meanings going into the music. We see a woman singing in a cave near a waterfall and a mother and child playing in a forest and enjoying the morning sun and the soft moss and other greenery. The aforementioned woman is presumably Hafstad with Bono playing what look like traditional drums and striking archaic looking instruments that one imagines are supposed to create the thrumming drone that runs through much of the song and the rest the organic percussion and kalimba that convey a sense of delicacy and mystery. In the video it looks like a trio of figures are performing a mystery ritual in the aforementioned forest in black robes and one figure wearing antlers, later all in white at dusk on the beach. Altogether between the visuals and the meditative music one gets a sense of getting a peak into ancestral memory of culture as it emerged from a time of the creation of myths. Watch the video for “Ra Rising Sun” on YouTube and connect with Gabbarein at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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