It’s been 10 years since this mysterious British duo got together, mixing cinematic post-rock with breathtaking multimedia – and not forgetting those costumes. With crowdfunding now helping to bring third album Symbiosis to light, Nordic Giants’ drummer-guitarist Rôka tells us more about the continuing theme of nature’s influences to them, and how to remain off-grid personally and musically.

Words: Dave Everley

Images: Neal Grundy

“Nothing’s sacred anymore. We want to have that mystery, and let people interpret things in their own way.”

Nordic Giants, the most enigmatic band in modern music, would like the world to know something: they’re not actually a band. “We don’t even call ourselves that most of the time,” says the voice on the other end of the phone, in a distinct regional British accent. “We see ourselves as an audiovisual project as much as anything.”

The voice belongs to Rôka – sometimes Rôka Skuld – drummer, bowed guitar player and one half of this two-person entity. What he’s saying isn’t surprising.

Nordic Giants don’t play their intimately grandiose music so much as present it, accompanied by vivid, self-created films and costumes that suggest a pair of tribal shaman gone wild in a nature reserve.

No, what’s surprising is that Rôka is saying anything at all. This is the first time either member has done an interview in this manner since they got together in 2010. Questions are usually answered via email, partly in an attempt to preserve their long-held anonymity and partly, presumably, to retain control of how Nordic Giants are presented to the world (even after our conversation, they send through a series of bullet-pointed answers to clarify and expand on what we talked about).