Odysseus

Founded in the late 1990s, Herman Dune is the project of David Ivar, a Franco-Swedish songwriter based in San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles, California. After 25 years of Herman Dune and 15 albums, we are excited to present Odysseús, a new collection of songs that takes you on a journey through the turbulent life of David Ivar, a journey of longing, pain, love, death, faith, and redemption. It's the first time that Herman Dune has worked with an outside producer, David Garza. The set-up is almost all acoustic instruments, recorded live with the band in one room. It's Folk music in the typical style of Herman Dune with touches of Americana, Country, Jewish, and Hispanic traditions, but with a quite new twist in sound and arrangements. The story behind Odysseús: "The album started when I found myself caught between worlds. Stuck in Montréal, waiting for my paperwork to clear so I could return home to California - I was the sole occupant in an empty and closed-off hotel in the Jewish Italian neighborhood of Mile End. Every day, I'd go visit Leonard Cohen's grave on Mont Royal, leaving a rock or a flower, praying that I would soon be able to return to my wife and our three cats in Los Angeles. That deep sense of longing was the spark that ignited this album, a journey that took years to write. By the time I felt ready to record, I had made it back home, married the love of my life, had the best tour of my career. But when I looked back at the songs, at the pain and relief of the journey, it felt like an Odyssey – the greatest one of my life. That's when I decided to name the album Odysseús. Coincidentally, Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey had just been released, and the joy I found in reading it made everything fall into place." "That's when I met David Garza. It was pure chance in a crowded café in downtown San Pedro. David, a Grammy-winning producer and musician, had worked with Fiona Apple, Iron & Wine, John C. Reilly, and The Milk Carton Kids, and had played with some of my musical heroes, like Lucinda Williams and Townes Van Zandt. We immediately clicked, and he offered to produce my songs. When we felt ready, we gathered everyone at my house for three days of live sessions. It was a chaotic, beautiful process, with everyone in the room playing together, no headphones, no overdubs – just raw, real music."