Folk Songs of Iceland

Folk Songs of Iceland 
performed by Anna Thorhallsdottir
Edited by Mario de Luigi
Licensed by Editoriale Sciascia, Milan
Lyrichord Discs, Inc., New York

Just the photograph of Anna Thorhallsdottir on the cover of Folk Songs of Iceland alone is enough to bring about those nostalgic feelings about a country and their peoples. The photo is, like the music on that record, and maybe like Iceland itself, serene, mystical, and meditative. On the background is a picture of the northern light. I've never been to Iceland, only flown over, I never read the Edda (I only know of it because of crossword puzzles), and I can't speak the language but my mind has this rich history with the country based on a film I once saw that made a great impression, and an art teacher in college. Thanks to contemporary search engine miracles I was able to retrieve the name of the film, which is Hrafninn flýgur, without knowing any information about it, and see parts of it again on YouTube, a quarter of a Century after I saw the movie.

(The art teacher's name is Sigurdur Gudmundsson, by the way).

And...by the way again...the instrument Anna Thorhallsdottir is playing is called langspil, an Icelandic drone zither and the song below is called Sortnar thú Sky.