Eivør gives a grief-era dress new meaning for TUNGL concerts

Eivør will wear a transformed dress with personal significance at concerts for her new album TUNGL this weekend, KVF reports. The dress, once associated with a period of grief, has been redesigned to represent healing.

The concerts will take place at the Nordic House, a venue in the Faroe Islands. Eivør has worked closely with designer Maibritt Marjunardóttir, who created the performers’ costumes and helped shape the visual presentation of the shows.

Most of the album’s songs were written shortly after Eivør and her husband, Tróndur Bogason, moved back to the Faroe Islands more than three years ago. Eivør describes TUNGL as a kind of homecoming: a more inward-looking record about emotions, love, longing and the courage to face the unknown.

The dress was originally worn around the release of Eivør’s album Room, written during the period when her father died. Grief and loss were central themes of that record. Marjunardóttir suggested bringing the dress back for TUNGL, where the song Healer reflects on how time can mend wounds.

Marjunardóttir has dyed the dress black and given it a new look. Eivør said she no longer wore it, but that it now had a new life. The concerts will be her first time performing in it since the Room period.

Reusing existing clothes is central to Marjunardóttir’s approach. Eivør has collected many dresses and costumes over the years, but says she no longer wears many of them. She sees a parallel between reworking old clothes and drawing on material from her own past and Faroese culture in her music.

The pair have also carried graphic elements from the album into the musicians’ costumes, bringing the stage design, lighting, clothing and music together. Eivør said she was especially looking forward to performing at home in the Faroe Islands.