Elin Brimheim Heinesen - Eitt dýpi av dýrari tíð (2023)

The importance that Jens Pauli Heinesen’s literary works have had for the Faroese society cannot be underestimated.
No one has written as much prose about life in the Faroe Islands during the Second World War and in the period leading up to the turn of
the millennium as Jens Pauli Heinesen. His extensive literature, which counts around 40 works, has enriched the Faroese people and the Faroese language. His prose reflects Faroese culture and has strengthened and developed Faroese identity.

In his prose, Jens Pauli sheds light on eternally valid, universal subjects as relevant today as when they were written, but seen from a certain point of view that most Faroese can identify with. His works play an important identity-creating role. They take up a lot of space in the Faroese book register and are a great contribution to the total reading material in Faroese, so important to the survival of Faroese as a language.

On this album, the spotlight is put on his poems, which, although few, deserve to be highlighted. In the late 80s, Jens Pauli’s daughter, Elin Brimheim Heinesen, set music to a poem by her father for the first time. It was the poem Eitt dýpi av dýrari tíð (A Chasm of Precious Time) – a song, which all Faroese know today. The song was first released in 1988 on the album NALJA by Elin & Kári. In 2002, the song was recorded in a symphonic version for a documentary by Gulla Øregaard about Jens Pauli Heinesen, made in connection with his 70th birthday. The now deceased, Danish composer Søren Hyldgaard arranged the music for symphony orchestra. The work has since become national heritage and is a highly valued Faroese classic nowadays.

Recently, Elin again set music to another beautiful poem by her father, called Sóleyan lýsir um fløtur (Buttercups Light Up the Meadows). After a successful crowd funding campaign, the song was arranged for symphony orchestra by the Italian composer Enzo De Rosa and recorded with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Tórshavn’s Men’s Choir and Elin as the lead vocalist. The song was released as
a single and as a music video on November 12th, 2021.

Elin and Enzo decided to continue working together, this time on four other songs Elin made to poems by her father: Flóttin (The Refugee), Heystnáttin (Autumn Night), Eg gangi við einum djúpi (The Chasm Deep
Within) and Sorgin er vøkur við (Sorrow is Beautiful Too), all of which are strong poems on subjects, which are still relevant today. At Enzo’s request, Elin translated (or re-wrote with respect) all the poems into English, so that non-Faroese people can listen to this album and understand what is being sung about.

The orchestral parts were recorded in Prague, Czech Republic on June 15th, 2022 with one of Europe’s best symphony orchestras, The Czech National Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Vladimir Martinka. Production manager Laura Lungu oversaw the recording. The choir Tarira sang the choral parts and Elin Brimheim Heinesen is the lead vocalist. The four new pieces of music, in addition to the two that have been published as singles already – Sóleyan lýsir um fløtur and Eitt dýpi av dýrari tíð (this time in an updated mix) – are now all released together on this album, both in the original Faroese language as well as in English.