The album Himdalen is derived from the Land Music project Himdalen that was composed for and realized the entire evening and night outdoors 24 November 2018 at and around the Combined Repository and Storage Facility for radioactive waste in Himdalen.

The valley is narrow and close to unpopulated, 45 km east of Oslo, Norway. Surrounded by pine forest, the facility is constructed in a bedrock hill on a municipality border.

As a final repository, the facility is inherently planned for future abandonment, yet to be monitored for 300–500 years, subject among other conditions to restrictions on land use.

It is made to become a future ruin, resembling a sanctuary, untouchable, bringing the Greek Delphi adyton 'not to be entered', constructed above a bedrock chasm, to mind.

Listen on Spotify

  1. Repository
  2. Half-life
  3. Remembrance
  4. Beyond structures
  5. Eternal refuge
  6. Pine forest
  7. Adyton
  8. Oklo natural reactor
  9. Regeneration

Live scenes performed by Aksiom – Ensemble for New Music: Ole Martin Huser-Olsen, Jonas Cambien, Anders Kregnes Hansen, Christian Meaas Svendsen.
Live scene recording: Jøran Rudi.
Recomposition and editing: Knut Olaf Sunde.
Mixing: Knut Olaf Sunde and Cato Langnes.
Mastering: Cato Langnes and Knut Olaf Sunde.

Recorded live in Himdalen 24–25 November 2018.
Acoustic extensions pre-recorded in studio early November 2018.
Soundscape recorded on site 8–9 May 2017 by Knut Olaf Sunde.
Produced by Knut Olaf Sunde.
Design, development and cover art: internetfriendsforever.
Released with economic support from Norwegian Society of Composers.

Special thanks to Aksiom – Ensemble for New Music, Notam – Norwegian centre for technology, art and music, Morten Minothi Kristiansen, Jøran Rudi, Mattias Pollak, Henrik Beck Kæmpe, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Erik Engblad and Rose Dodd.

Thanks also to the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme, Norwegian Academy of Music, Institute for Energy Technology and numerous individuals for supporting this project in different ways.