Ever since my first trip to Scandinavia back in 2009, I have been obsessed with that part of the world. A wonderful, short holiday in Stockholm firmly cemented it as my favourite city in the world and, as soon as I got back, I through myself into learning more and more about Sweden and the other Nordic countires.

Not long after I got back, BBC4 in the UK started showing the second series of the Swedish version of Wallander, starring Krister Henriksson – which I avidly tuned in for. In need of a continued fix, once it was over, I also watched the BBC version of  Wallander, relased the year before and starring Kenneth Branagh in the titular role. The music of this version, written by Martin Phipps, and also the cinematography and brooding landscapes of Skane, captured me in a way that meant Nordic Noir now had its hooks in me forver. As a side note, it was a great thrill for me to work with Martin Phipps some years later on The Crown.

I continued to consume as many TV shows and films from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland as I could over the intervening years, as well as gorge on as many Nordic Noir novels I could get my hands on (although my reading opportunities slowed down dramatically when my children entered the world!).

All this culminated in the moment when my love for all things Scandi collided with my work as a synth programmer and I got the opportunity to work on season 4 of The Bridge, one of my all-time favourite Nordic Noir TV series. Thanks to Uno Helmersson and Patrik Andren‘s generosity, the work I did for them formed a significant part of what became the first two installments of my Zebra Nordsund series of soundsets: Blood and Gold.

There have subsequently been two more entries, Dusk and Snow, followed by a slight chnge in direction for the series with Diva Nordsund. This Diva interpretation of the Nordsund sound focused on using Diva‘s analaogue-modelled oscillators, filters, envelopes and effects to explore a more, raw and synthy interpretation of the sounds that fuelled scores for Scandinavian crime dramas.

And I enoyed the experience so much, I have returned for more with Diva Nordsund II.

Nordsund II continues the analogue exploration of Nordic Noir sounds but, this time, takes it in a moodier, broodier, darker direction, really extracting as many chills and thrills from Diva as it can. It pushes the limits of Diva to provide a truly modern analogue sound, full of emotion, tension and unease that is perfect for concocting music for crime dramas and documentaries.

Primarily designed as a sonic toolkit to use alongside the more traditional strings, piano, guitar and vocals of dark musical storytelling, you can also use it to build cues from the ground up without venturing near a real instrument or sample library.

I hope you enjoy it.