Ulver "Flowers Of Evil (UK, House Of Mythology, HOM 023)"

Flowers of Evil is the twelfth studio album by Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. Written and produced by Ulver, the album was released on August 28, 2020 via House of Mythology. The album was recorded in Oslo from summer 2019 to winter 2020 and mixed by Martin Glover and Michael Rendall in February 2020. The album was officially announced in February 2020 with music video of the song "Russian Doll" being released on Valentine's Day. The second single "Little Boy" was made available on April 4, 2020.

The album cover features a still image of actress Renée Jeanne Falconetti having her head shaved during her performance in the title role of Carl Theodor Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, a film released in 1928.

Track listing

1. "One Last Dance" 5:43
2. "Russian Doll" 3:55
3. "Machine Guns and Peacock Feathers" 3:54
4. "Hour of the Wolf" 4:25
5. "Apocalypse 1993" 4:31
6. "Little Boy" 5:23
7. "Nostalgia" 5:20
8. "A Thousand Cuts" 4:41

Total length: 37:52

Recording information:

Recorded and produced summer 2019 - winter 2020.

Drums and vocals recorded at Subsonic Society.

Mixed February 2020.

Mastered February 2020.

Ulver "Shadows Of The Sun (USA, The End Records, TE089)"

Shadows of the Sun is the seventh studio album by the Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. Produced by Ulver, the album was issued in October 2007 via Jester Records and The End Records. Officially announced on 13 July 2007, Shadows of the Sun received critical acclaim on release, and was described as "dark and tragic", with "soothing electronics and natural percussion". The album features contributions from Pamelia Kurstin on theremin, Mathias Eick on trumpet, and Austrian white noise musician Christian Fennesz adding electronics (described as "supplemental shimmer") and helping Ulver to correspond with their vision on the final product.

The track listing and the album sleeve was released to the public in a press statement by Ulver's American record label The End Records, and a teaser for the song "Vigil" was released on MySpace on 29 August 2007. On 30 August Ulver announced a release party for the album to be held at the Europa Night Club in Brooklyn, New York on 20 September 2007 with Kristoffer Rygg and Tore Ylwizaker DJing, while The Austerity Program and Lapdog of Satan were playing live.

On 13 September 2007 Jester Records made it possible to pre-order the album, including a limited vinyl edition, with alternate front cover by David D'Andrea. The collector's deal also included a 10" red vinyl edition of A Quick Fix of Melancholy. The End Records also released a special deal consisting of the CD edition of the album, a T-shirt, and a screen print by Tomi Lahdesmaki in a limited run of 200.

The release of Shadows of the Sun was delayed in Europe and the United States, possibly caused by problems with the vinyl manufacturing. The album was distributed by Plastic Head, the UK's tenth largest distributor in Europe.

The entire album was leaked to the Internet on 17 September 2007.

"Solitude" is a Black Sabbath cover; the original version appears on their 1971 album Master of Reality, while "Eos" is a revisited version of "Gravferd", from the soundtrack of the Norwegian film Uno. "What Happened?" contains approximately 1 minute and 40 seconds of silence at the end.

The front photo is taken from the October 1978 issue of Natural History Magazine.

Shadows of the Sun is the first album without an appearance from Håvard Jørgensen, a full-time member on Ulver's first four albums and a guest on their last two.

In February 2008, the album won the Oslo Awards prize for album of the year 2007. The album was also voted best album of 2007 at the website Sonic Frontiers.

In December 2014, Shadows of the Sun was released as a sheet music album by Raven Music Editions. All the songs, except for the Black Sabbath cover "Solitude", were included in the songbook.

In an interview with Music Information Centre Norway, Ulver member Tore Ylwizaker commented on the album. He said it would be downplayed and inspired by chamber music in both style and crew. Ylwizaker also took a year off to study classical composers and composition techniques, and said he took a particular liking to Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.

Rygg described Shadows of the Sun as "our most personal record to date." Commenting in Unrestrained magazine in 2007, Rygg said, "I'm a diagnosed depressive, and should have been trying to focus on living, but instead I've immersed myself in some isolated, dark and paranoid place. It has no doubt helped make this album what it is, but it's a prison of the mind." Adding, “Sometimes all I see is darkness; it's overpowering. So this record is about venting out a lot of that stuff, the gloom, but it also represents some kind of quiet acceptance. Like this is how the situation is, and you're just gonna have to live with it. Use it for what it's worth."

On the album’s evolution, Rygg commented, "I was pretty set on keeping it more bare this time. When we did Blood Inside, we'd been holding back with all that minimal stuff for so long — the soundtracks (Lyckantropen Themes and Svidd neger), the Silence EPs and all that. So Blood Inside was an outburst of sorts. I guess this record is a withdrawal again, so that's an inherent dynamic...flux and reflux."

Commenting on the use of the Oslo Session String Quartet, Rygg said, "We worked a lot with simulating stringed instruments, so it's always good for us to get some people in and play the real thing. I suppose strings and piano are our instruments of preference; those are the sounds we like to work with. That timbre, you know? In terms of writing music — not that we really write music per se, but say we did write music, we'd write it for strings and piano." Adding, "A lot of times when we get musicians into the studio we just get them to play along with preliminary ideas or themes. We can record hours of music and end up using one minute of it. But this time we had the body of the songs before the string quartet came, and we wrote down a part for them. It was a little more disciplined than before."

Rygg, commenting in Unrestrained magazine, said, "The first song, “Eos,” is an embellishment of a piece that we did for a funeral theme in the movie Uno. So you can use the same source material in different contexts. If you're in a different place at a different time and in a different frame of mind you can use stuff that originally didn't go anywhere, and make something of it. So yeah, we keep everything, but, man, it's a lot of music and ideas lying on the backups these days. I'm guessing 10 per cent of what we start ends up as something presentable. We feel like a lot of things are interesting for 30 seconds or so, but then what? We could probably sell riffs to rock bands, sell hundreds of riffs or piano themes or whatever, but our main problem is to tie elements together—to 'bring it home,' as they say. We are quite selective."

Rygg commented in Terrorizer magazine, in 2007: “Lyrically, the album is very simple. It's the basics - life, love, loss. And, of course, death. It's been a humbling record to make, and has kind of beaten us down. People will no doubt say that it's pretentious, but that's not how it felt when we were doing it." Continuing, “The lyrics are always the biggest challenge. We have these writer's nights sometimes, Jørn [Sværen] and I, where we go to my parents' cottage with something to drink, some music and just dedicate ourselves to writing."

Commenting on Ulver’s evolution, Rygg said, "I don't think anyone will be surprised. The shock value is gone, I think it went away with Metamorphosis. Since then, the changes haven't been fundamental at all.” Continuing, “I think the shapeshifting story is one that has been greatly exaggerated by the media. There have been a couple of twists and turns after the Blake record, that's granted, but nothing too significant. I see Ulver as having a part one and a part two. And that's a division that we already had in our minds before those first three albums were even finished. We already knew we were going somewhere else after Nattens madrigal. Due to logistics, we had to wait almost two years until that one got released, and in the interim we had amassed a huge array of influences. We were out of our teens and our outlook was becoming more complex."

"One of the original ideas for this album was to have no percussion whatsoever. We ended up having to use it but we limited it as much as we could. We usually have some sort of mental picture of what we're going to do and set out all sorts of guidelines for ourselves to get there. But as soon as we get working, the process takes precedence. The control room gets out of control, in a manner of speaking. We start with lots of belief in ourselves and our abilities, and end up in nothing but mistrust and dissolution.”

Discussing the influence aesthetic for Shadows of the Sun and the influence of chamber music, Rygg commented, “There's no specific aesthetic other than a sense of the beautiful itself, I suppose. There's a connection to classical composition, that's pretty obvious. Some Wagner transpositions. Some Schumann warped beyond recognition etc. in there. "Funebre" is largely based on one single bar off Wagner and we have that little Chopin signature thrown in there as well. So yeah, even though we use fewer notes, the classical stamp is all over the record. Beach Boys? It's probably the vocal thing, that I am fond of clean-sung, layered, well-produced vocals and harmonies. That's another rarity these days. I wonder, where did all the sunshine pop go?”

In an interview with Pitchfork Media, Rygg commented on the collaboration with Christian Fennesz: “He remixed a song off Perdition City. I wanted Christian to leave his signature on this album simply because I love his stuff, and he has a similar story to ours. He's not at home in his own genre. That "harsh" noise stuff does not appeal to me at all. It lacks the fingerspitzengefühl that turn songs like Christian's "Chateau Rouge" or "A Year in a Minute" into something special. He makes white noise sound like sunlight dappling in the Mediterranean.”

Upon release, Shadows of the Sun received generally positive reviews from music critics.

William York, writing for AllMusic, commented, “Shadows of the Sun offers a new slant on the sort of electronic art pop sound that Ulver have been developing off and on since 1999‘s Metamorphosis EP. Along with 2005's return-to-form Blood Inside, it is one of their stronger efforts this decade, following several years of experimentation with instrumental electronic music. They have developed a unique, quickly identifiable sound during that time, and this album is a nice variation on that signature sound.”

SputnikMusic rated the album 4 out of 5, commenting, “Ulver have taken a decidedly more subtle approach to songwriting and the mood they’re attempting to create, but what a mood it is. The feeling that you get while listening to this album could best be summed up by the word “serenity”. Granted, it is a somber form of serenity, but the word still fits perfectly.” Adding, “If there are any problems that some may have with this new album it is going to be the same thing that is going to make others love this album, and that is its subtlety. Whereas on Blood Inside and Perdition City the albums commanded your attention due to their frequent shift from soft to loud sections and their regular use of discordant sounds, Shadows of the Sun will easily fade away from your attention if you don’t give it the awareness it deserves.”

Roadrunner Records affiliate website Blabbermouth.net rated the album 8.5 out of 10, commenting, “Shadows of the Sun begins sombrely and remains so throughout, employing more subtle coloration and impeccable placement of impacting (but still low-key) rhythms. It is the magic that Ulver creates on Shadows of the Sun that seeps through the pores and drowns the soul in melancholic grace. It is why the act stands alone.”

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ulver, except where noted

1. "Eos" 5:05
2. "All the Love" 3:42
3. "Like Music" 3:30
4. "Vigil" 4:27
5. "Shadows of the Sun" 4:36
6. "Let the Children Go" 3:50
7. "Solitude" (Black Sabbath cover) Butler, Iommi, Osbourne, Ward 3:53
8. "Funebre" 4:26
9. "What Happened?" 6:25

Total length: 39:58

The last song, "What Happened?" includes over a minute of silence at the end.

Audun Strype – mastering

Trine Paulsen – cover and artwork

Kim Sølve – cover and artwork

David D'Andrea – LP cover artwork

Ulver "Messe I.X-VI.X"

Messe I.X-VI.X is the ninth studio album by the Norwegian experimental collective Ulver and the Tromsø Chamber Orchestra with additional aid from composer Martin Romberg. Written and produced by Ulver, released on October 8, 2013, via Jester Records and Kscope. The album has been described as a "peace mass for Lebanon".

On September 17, 2013, a trailer was released, and on October 4, 2013 the track "Shri Schneider", was released for streaming via Pitchfork Media.

The music was commissioned in 2012 by the Tromsø Kulturhus (House of Culture) in Norway, in a cooperation with the Arctic Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra cultural institution. It was composed and first performed live by Ulver, alongside the Tromsø Chamber Orchestra on September 21, 2012. The band then took the recordings back to Crystal Canyon, Oslo and spent winter and spring in post-production, honing the material for its studio-equivalent.

Six compositions altogether written and produced, recorded and mixed by Ulver, this time consisting of Ole Alexander Halstensgård, Kristoffer Rygg, Jørn H. Sværen and Tore Ylwizaker, with additional aid and advice from composer Martin Romberg who also arranged the music for the 21 members of Tromsø Chamber Orchestra. The album also features contemporary composers/musicians Ole-Henrik Moe and Kari Rønnekleiv.

The band named some of their influences for Messe I.X–VI.X:

Gorecki's No. 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It haunted us for years and probably always will. The Gustavs Mahler and Holst. Sound collages from When or Nurse with Wound. 70's kraut and synth. Ash Ra and Autobahn. 80’s pop scores. John Carpenter and Tin Drum. Terry Riley, again and again and again. Saint John of the Cross.

Opening song "As Syrians Pour In, Lebanon Grapples with Ghosts of a Bloody Past" was named after a news piece by Reuters concerning the flood of Syrian refugees into Lebanon following the ongoing Syrian Civil War. However, vocalist Kristoffer Rygg has stated: "This appropriation is not any more, or less, political other than an indication of concern. We live in troubled times. The song itself has a distinct Middle Eastern feel to it and coupled with sounds of vultures and war that title seemed both appropriate as well as contemporary. But we have no ideology for sale. Only our sadness."

Following its original performance at Tromsø Kulturhus in Tromsø, Norway, with Tromsø Chamber Orchestra, on September 21, 2012, Ulver have performed Messe I.X–VI.X in its entirety a further two times: On May 20, 2013 at Wave Gotik Treffen, Leipzig, Germany with the Stüba Philharmonie, Volkspalast and on November 16, 2013 at Teatro Regio, Parma, Italy with the MG_INC Orchestra.

Track listing

1. "As Syrians Pour In, Lebanon Grapples with Ghosts of a Bloody Past" 11:50
2. "Shri Schneider" 5:34
3. "Glamour Box (Ostinati)" 6:10
4. "Son of Man" 8:23
5. "Noche oscura del alma" ("Dark Night of the Soul") 5:25
6. "Mother of Mercy" 7:22

Total length: 44:52

"Much of this was recorded live, yet it is not a live album. We've spent long hours in the studio translating what happened that night."

The speech sample in "Mother of Mercy" is a Catholic rosary prayer in Italian.

Available editions:

• CD in a 7" folder (limited to 1000 copies)

• Vinyl 180g in a gatefold sleeve with spot varnis and gutter printing, 34-page booklet, poster and postcard

　- white vinyl

　- black vinyl

　- 300 solid silver mixed with black (including signed card)

　- 100 purple vinyl "deluxe lent edition" in handmade heavy leather gatefold sleeve (including poster, 7" booklet, CD and signed card)

• Digital

Ulver "Blood Inside"

Blood Inside is the sixth full-length studio album by Norwegian experimental collective Ulver. Produced by Ulver, together with Ronan Chris Murphy, the album was recorded and mixed in early 2004, and issued in June 2005 via Jester Records. The album sees Ulver return to more classically-based arrangements and instrumentation.

The coda on “It Is Not Sound" is based on Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach. The lyrics for "Christmas" were adapted from the poem of the same name by Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa, written in 1922.

A video clip for "It Is Not Sound" was issued on May 2, 2005, via The End Records’ website, along with audio samples from Blood Inside.

Ulver's sound progresses here even more than on previous records. The music is influenced by several different genres such as rock, jazz, classical music, industrial music, and electronica.

The working title of the album was Utopian Enterprise, then changed to Heart, before the band settled on Blood Inside. Speaking about the evolution of the album, Kristoffer Rygg commented, “Utopian Enterprises is a title we all like and it goes back to Perdition City and some ideas stemming from that period, but as the lyrics took form it did not fit anymore. Then there was the Heart Album. Even we thought that was a bit pretentious. So Jørn and I are walking/talking outside one night trying to figure out what it is all about. Thinking only in key words: heart, blood, red, rose, beauty, violence, body, life, death, ambulance, hospital and so forth. Then it struck us: Blood Inside.”

"In terms of genre, it is more rock than electronica. Even a bit psychedelic and/or progressive at times. The mood is kind of sanctified and sad. It has a few frivolous moments as well, but as they say, 'even in laughter the heart is sorrowful' (Proverbs 14:13.). I know there are many people who expect some kind of sequel to Perdition City. It's not. It's got a different kind of sensibility. It's also got far too much sound on it to be similar to our film soundtracks, which are quite often based on very simple and transparent kind of themes.”

“[Blood Inside is] kind of counteracting the 'less is more' trip we've been on lately. Our last proper album Perdition City was so keen on being cinematic that it almost read as an application form to the film industry. While we did get into the film industry, our illusions of how fun and easy it would be to score motion pictures were downed pretty fast as soon as we got more acquainted with those people and their working methods. Now, having been a somewhat voiceless and underlying stratum in other people's visions for a while, we just felt like we had to put up a big fat wall of sound this time around.”

“Blood Inside is not really that much of an electronic album, but it uses a lot of the technology we learned from our electronica phase. It showed us a different way to make records (while) still following different musical perspectives. They changed all of mine; it's not just true for me, it's true for most people. Blood Inside is like a monster kaleidoscope of illusions, very neatly arranged. As it seems now the next record is going to be without all that covering and more humble, with a more heartbreaking atmosphere; it's not going to be the same at all. We are kind of circular; it's reaction, anti-reaction, reaction, anti-reaction... it plays off each other; that's the way we work. As I said, we're not really good at perfecting a formula or sticking to what we know.”

Rygg, commenting in Unrestrained magazine in 2007, also reflected, "That was a very anarchistic album. We revelled in the freedom of not having to play by anyone's rules, our own included. With the EPs and all the stuff we did before, we had rules. The Silence EPs had rules because they were all based on mishaps. That's the whole concept of glitch music. It has to be based on sounds that aren't intended, in a sense. We also had rules laid out for the soundtracks, naturally, so Blood Inside got a little out of control. We just went all over the whole spectrum. I think it's a solid record but it's very different from what we've done now. I think we made some good music. I think the track “Christmas,” for instance, and “Your Call” are good tracks. “Your Call” was, by the way, a song that influenced this new record [Shadows of the Sun]. It set off the musical tone for this record."

Track listing

1. "Dressed in Black" 7:06
2. "For the Love of God" 4:11
3. "Christmas" 6:15
4. "Blinded by Blood" 6:22
5. "It Is Not Sound" 4:37
6. "The Truth" 4:01
7. "In the Red" 3:30
8. "Your Call" 6:07
9. "Operator" 3:36

Total length: 45:45

A limited-edition CD (2000 copies) was released in a red velvet box containing a numbered cardboard sleeve. A limited vinyl version was released by Profound Lore Records. 1000 copies were made in six different colors:

• 100 transparent/red splatter
• 100 white/red splatter
• 100 red/black splatter
• 100 red/white two–sided
• 300 white
• 300 red

Ulver "Perdition City"

Perdition City (subtitled Music to an Interior Film) is the fifth studio album by Norwegian collective Ulver, issued in March 2000, via Jester Records. The album was recorded and produced by Kristoffer Rygg and Tore Ylwizaker, mixed by Ylwizaker at Beep Jam Studio and mastered by Audun Strype at Strype Audio.

Perdition City continues the experimentation heard on Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Metamorphosis, containing elements of trip hop, jazz, ambient music, spoken word and electronica, the combination being described as "moody", "atmospheric", and "cinematic in scope". The album received positive reviews upon release, with Kerrang! noting, "This ain't rock 'n roll. This is evolution on such a grand scale that most bands wouldn't even be able to wrap their tiny little minds around it."

The Metamorphosis EP, issued in September 1999, showcased Ulver's new electronic sound, delving into what would become the foundation for all future records,

Now consisting of only two members — Rygg and Ylwizaker — the duo started to incorporate field recordings into their work. During the making of Perdition City Ylwizaker would hang microphones outside the window of his 5th floor apartment to capture the sounds of the inner city streets.

Subtitled "Music to an Interior Film", Perdition City, and companion EP’s Silence Teaches You How to Sing and Silencing the Singing, represent the transition to the band's work in film scores, largely inspired by the results of electronic programming and digital sound manipulation they had experimented with during the recording of Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In response to the subtitle, Rygg adds, "We mean just what we say, an abstract "inner movie". It wouldn't be wise to comment on anything afterwards in case there would be a hidden message." Leonards Lair state that Perdition City is “much more than background music, which is capable of adding atmosphere to a film, but taken out of context as a standalone piece is ultimately worthless. This music is too obtrusive, and to be frank, too good for a soundtrack.“

Expanding on the photography included in the Perdition City booklet, Rygg comments, "We didn't consciously think of taking the listener into a concrete city, it's more of a metaphor and abstract. A friend of mine who has written books and taken many photographs inspired me to capture weird pictures. We then compiled the best of them to support the story the lyrics make. We tried to make an anti-aesthetic whole that would create a documentary feeling."

Printed in the sleeve note is states: "This is for the stations before and after sleep. Headphones and darkness recommended." Rygg adds, “Darkness is always fascinating, as well as the great void. It doesn’t matter under which aesthetic circumstances this void appears. It is always there and that was important for us to realize on Perdition City: the void is even over the voice. (…) It is funny you call us criminal alchemists. Indeed in our lyrics there are enough criminal and alchemical aspects, or fascinating borderline topics, to be more concrete. That all takes place in the dead city, or better: in a centre, an imagined location of nowhere and nothing.”

Rygg, commenting in Unrestrained magazine in 2007, said, "It's like I say, we only have three consistent albums. I think Nattens madrigal is one, I think Perdition City is one, and I think this new one [Shadows of the Sun]. They all sound pretty dead set. We were heavily into stuff like Amon Tobin, Warp Records, et cetera, and that certainly influenced the sound of that one." Continuing, “[Making film soundtracks] was more painstaking work than we thought. It's exciting work, but it's also more commercially orientated. You can apply your own tastes and your own vision, of course, but only to a certain extent. It always comes down to what the director and producers have in mind. And I respect that, as they are the ones with lots of money at stake. As a musician, it's an advantage if you get involved early in the process, before the editing is done because then you can cross edit sounds and images for better momentum or what have you. Whereas if the stuff is already edited, it can be difficult to get it to fit. Also, you have to learn to put your ego aside because the film itself is obviously the priority, so it's not like making an album. It's not music on its own terms. It's an underscore, aimed more at the subconscious experience. In a cinema context, you're not really supposed to listen to the music, but feel it."

Tracklist:

1. Lost in Moments 07:16
2. Porn Piece or the Scars of Cold Kisses 07:08   
3. Hallways of Always 06:35
4. Tomorrow Never Knows 07:59   
5. The Future Sound of Music 06:39
6. We Are the Dead 03:41   
7. Dead City Centres 07:10  
8. Catalept 02:15  
9. Nowhere / Catastrophe 04:48

Time:  53:31

All selections conceived, performed and edited by Christophorus G. Rygg aka Trickster G. and Tore Ylwizaker. 

All booklet photos by Bård Torgersen except backside by G. 

Design by Subtopia.

Released with financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Affairs (Norsk Kassettavgiftsfond).

Recording information:

Mixed at Beep Jam Studio.

Mastered at Strype Audio, Oslo, Norway.

Ulver "Nattens Madrigal – Aatte Hymne Til Ulven I Manden"

Nattens Madrigal – Aatte Hymne Til Ulven I Manden (translated as "Madrigal Of The Night – Eight Hymns To The Wolf In Man") is the third studio album by Norwegian band Ulver, issued on 3 March 1997 via Century Media. Composed and arranged during the first half of 1995, Nattens is a concept album about wolves, the night, the moon, and the dark side of mankind.

The third and final album in what has become known as Ulver’s “Black Metal Trilogie,” Nattens madrigal marked the band’s international debut and showcases an abrasive black metal style similar to the darker, heavier tracks on Bergtatt, abandoning acoustic and atmospheric elements with an intentionally underproduced sound. The album has been described as “raw and grim black metal at its blackest.”

An urban legend regarding the album is that band spent the recording budget on Armani suits, cocaine and a Corvette and recorded the album outdoors in a Norwegian forest on an 8-track recorder. Kristoffer Rygg, however, has stated that this is not true and possibly a rumour started by Century Media.

Metal Injection concluded "Kveldssanger had no electric instruments, Nattens Madrigal had no acoustic instruments, but Bergtatt, has both acoustic and electric instruments; it’s like they spliced the elements from Bergtatt into two separate albums. If that’s the case, then Nattens Madrigal really showcases the black metal prowess of the band. The album answers exactly why people were so angered by Ulver’s transition away from black metal, and why people are still bitter at their direction today.” However, there are acoustic instruments on the album, for example on the first track.

Commenting on the rumours surrounding Nattens Madrigal, Rygg said, "Do you really think that Century Media advanced us so much that we could buy a black Corvette? Maybe some suits and drugs; I won't deny that. Or deny that we recorded it cheap. I'll let the myth carry on.” Continuing, 

"We didn't have anything to do with those rumours. The moment the big labels picked up black metal, that was the beginning of the end of black metal as far as I see it. They started to exploit the genre by stuff like that-dumb sales pitches-that took the heart out of a lot of it. It became very banal. I'm not blaming Century Media, but I definitely think that that marked the beginning of the end of black metal for me. Putting out Nattens Madrigal via a big label was kind of an antagonistic move. They probably expected a prettied-up Bergtatt, you know? We didn't want to conform to any business model. We still don't. It got into the mainstream and people became very adept at playing and producing professional records, and as a result of that it lost a lot of the magic that it held to me when I was a teenager listening to old Celtic Frost rehearsals, or old Mayhem demos. I'm still very much like that. I'd rather listen to old lo-fi recordings than the perfect retro-band, you know. So I was part of a different scene, a different vibe." 

Adding, "We composed Nattens Madrigal quite quickly after Bergtatt. And while we were rehearsing the Madrigal we recorded Kveldssanger, the second one. So I think that we spent about a year on that record. It was written in '95, recorded in '96, and was finally released early '97."

Writing for AllMusic, Steve Huey said “It's so fast and ferocious and the vocals so garbled that it's best just to take the sheer sonic force as reflecting the band's concept, rather than trying to piece it all together.”

John Chedsey, writing for Satan Stole My Teddybear, said that "Nattens Madrigal thus has to be taken on two levels: the actual immediate aesthetics of the production and then the compositional department. Based on songwriting alone (which takes a bit of effort to discern), Nattens Madrigal is a tour de force that would have redefined the most extreme of black metal had it been more palatable. Played at warp speed with hidden melodies, sublime guitar leads and a sense of apocalyptic devastation, Nattens Madrigal is one of the most impressive albums of its kind. That is, of course, assuming one has put aside the way it sounds. It's a bit like ignoring the quills of a porcupine and telling others what a cuddly housepet it makes.”

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Kristoffer Rygg; all music is composed by Kristoffer Rygg and Håvard Jørgensen

1. "Hymne I: Wolf and Fear" 6:16
2. "Hymne II: Wolf and the Devil" 6:21
3. "Hymne III: Wolf and Hatred" 4:48
4. "Hymne IV: Wolf and Man" 5:21
5. "Hymne V: Wolf and the Moon" 5:14
6. "Hymne VI: Wolf and Passion" 5:48
7. "Hymne VII: Wolf and Destiny" 5:32
8. "Hymne VIII: Wolf and the Night" 4:38

Total length: 43:58

In 2009, IGN included Nattens Madrigal in their "10 Great Black Metal Albums" list.

Translation of the album title: The Madrigal of (the) Night - Eight Hymnes to the Wolf in Man.

The album's title as well as all the lyrics are written in the style of archaic 19th century Dano-Norwegian. 

No song titles were given for this album initially; the tracks were simply listed in the booklet using Roman numerals. Their actual titles are known from promo editions and reissues.

The official Ulver site states this as a 1996 album, in fact it was released in 1997: The European version came out in March and the US version in April.

Composed and arranged during the first half of 1995.