Ulver | Forgive Us (feat. Nils Petter Molvær)
What is Ulver’s “Forgive Us” about? The death of the god Pan, a Norwegian trumpet legend, and the band that went from black metal to synth-pop in 30 years.
Quick Facts: Release Date, Genre, and Credits
“Forgive Us” was first released on May 31, 2024, as a two-track single (paired with “Nocturne #1”) before being collected on the album Liminal Animals on November 29, 2024. The track runs 5:06 and features Norwegian jazz trumpet legend Nils Petter Molvær. Written by Ole Alexander Halstensgard, Kristoffer Rygg, and Jorn H. Svaeren. Mixed by Anders Moller at Subsonic Society, mastered by Vegard Sleipnes. Recorded at Lupercal in the Old Town, Oslo. Released on House of Mythology.
What Is “Forgive Us” About?
The song retells an ancient myth. During the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (AD 14-37), a sailor named Thamus was aboard a ship bound for Italy when a divine voice called out across the sea: “Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes, take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead!” Thamus did as instructed, and the news was met with groans and laments from the shore.
Ulver compress this story into a handful of lines. “Captain, are you there? This is a perfect storm. Let it be heard: the great god Pan is dead. The throne is empty. We are alone.” From there, the song becomes a prayer addressed in two directions simultaneously: “Spirit of the sky, remember us. Spirit of the earth, forgive us.”
The Daily Campus described it as “asking both the world and God for forgiveness: two conflicting opposites as Earthly and Heavenly things are juxtaposed as different and even contradictory to one another.” Pan’s death in classical mythology symbolized the end of the old pagan world. In Ulver’s hands, it becomes something more contemporary: the feeling that whatever was holding things together has left, and we’re alone with the mess we’ve made.
Story Behind “Forgive Us”
The Singles Strategy That Built an Album
“Forgive Us” was part of an unusual release approach. Throughout 2024, Ulver released a series of digital singles with no outside promotion, a process the band described as “quite liberating in these twilight years.” “Ghost Entry,” “A City in the Skies,” “Forgive Us,” “Hollywood Babylon,” “Locusts,” and “The Red Light” each appeared separately before being collected as Liminal Animals in November. The album added previously unreleased tracks “Nocturne #2” and the 11-minute closer “Helian (Trakl)” to form a complete statement.
This approach meant each song had to stand alone before it found its place in a larger narrative. “Forgive Us” worked particularly well in isolation: a self-contained myth, a prayer, and a lament compressed into five minutes.
Tore Ylwizaker: The Shadow Over the Album
Liminal Animals is dedicated to the memory of Tore Ylwizaker, Ulver’s synth player and a key contributor to the band’s sound for decades. Ylwizaker had gradually drifted away from the band’s activities after 2021’s Scary Muzak before passing away in August 2024. Although “Forgive Us” was written and released months before his death, Kerrang! noted that the song “feels particularly resonant” in the context of the loss: a track about the death of a god, released in the same year the band lost one of their own.
The timing was coincidental, but the emotional weight is real. “Remember us. Forgive us.” takes on a different texture when you know what happened after it was recorded.
“Forgive Us” Recording and Production Details
Lupercal and the Oslo Sessions
Liminal Animals was recorded at Lupercal in the Old Town of Oslo, a studio space that reflects the band’s deep roots in the Norwegian capital. The album was written and arranged by the current core trio: Ole Alexander Halstensgard, Kristoffer Rygg, and Jorn H. Svaeren. Work began in 2022, following the departure of Ylwizaker.
The production maintains the sleek, atmospheric synth-pop palette Ulver has been developing since The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2017) and Flowers of Evil (2020). Anders Moller mixed the album at Subsonic Society and also contributed percussion and choir vocals. Vegard Sleipnes handled mastering.
Nils Petter Molvaer’s Trumpet
The standout instrument on “Forgive Us” is Molvaer’s trumpet, which enters the track like a voice from another dimension. Ever Metal described it as bringing “Pink Floyd-esque grandeur to the composition” where “each note soothes like a warm balm to weary ears.” Molvaer, one of Norway’s most celebrated jazz musicians, is known for pushing trumpet into electronic and ambient territories on albums like Khmer (1997) and Solid Ether (2000). His contribution here isn’t a jazz solo. It’s a long, sustained ache that floats above Rygg’s baritone and the smooth bass work, adding a dimension of grief and beauty the synths alone couldn’t achieve.
Molvaer was one of several guest musicians on the album, alongside Stian Westerhus (guitar, bass, strings, backing vocals), drummer Ivar Thormodsaeter, and choir vocalists Sara Khorami, Astra Eida Rygh, Sisi Sumbundu, Torgeir Waldemar Engen, and Anders Moller.
Notes About “Forgive Us” by Ulver
Release Date: May 31, 2024 (single); November 29, 2024 (album)
Duration: 5:06
Genre: Synth-Pop / Art Pop / Dark Electronic
Album: Liminal Animals (13th studio album, track 3)
Featured Artist: Nils Petter Molvaer (trumpet)
Writers: Ole Alexander Halstensgard, Kristoffer Rygg, Jorn H. Svaeren
Label: House of Mythology
Studio: Lupercal, Old Town, Oslo
Mixed by: Anders Moller at Subsonic Society
Mastered by: Vegard Sleipnes
Subject: The death of the Greek god Pan (from Plutarch’s account, AD 14-37)
Ulver “Forgive Us” Era Band Details
Album Details
Album: Liminal Animals
Release Date: November 29, 2024
Label: House of Mythology
Producers: Ulver (Halstensgard, Rygg, Svaeren)
Studio: Lupercal, Old Town, Oslo
Format: Vinyl (180g black, 180g red), digital (24-bit/48kHz)
Dedicated to: Tore Ylwizaker (synth player, passed away August 2024)
Core Members
Kristoffer Rygg - Vocals, programming
Ole Alexander Halstensgard - Electronics
Jorn H. Svaeren - Miscellaneous
Guest Musicians on Liminal Animals
Nils Petter Molvaer - Trumpet
Stian Westerhus - Guitar, bass, strings, backing vocals
Ivar Thormodsaeter - Drums
Anders Moller - Percussion, choir, mixing
Sara Khorami - Choir
Astra Eida Rygh - Choir
Sisi Sumbundu - Choir
Torgeir Waldemar Engen - Choir
Vegard Sleipnes - Mastering
Band Context
Ulver formed in Oslo in 1993 as a black metal band
Switched genres entirely after third album Nattens Madrigal (1996)
Have since explored electronic, ambient, trip-hop, experimental, avant-garde, and synth-pop
Kerrang! described them as turning “New York’s most hardened metal fans into goth clubbers” at their first American show
Previous albums include Perdition City (2000), Blood Inside (2005), Shadows of the Sun (2007), The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2017), Flowers of Evil (2020)
Rygg: “We are sort of eternal outsiders... quite restless, curious creatures. Not easily comfortable in any sort of box.”
Interesting Facts About “Forgive Us”
The Band That Killed Their Own Genre
Ulver’s journey from Norwegian black metal to “Forgive Us” is one of the most radical transformations in music history. In 1996, they were recording Nattens Madrigal, an album so raw and abrasive that rumors circulated it was recorded in a forest (it wasn’t). By 2024, Kristoffer Rygg is delivering a “pleading baritone croon” over smooth synths and Nils Petter Molvaer’s trumpet on a song about a Greek god dying. There’s no irony in it. Ulver didn’t abandon black metal to be clever. They just kept following whatever sound interested them next, and the path led from blast beats to Pan’s funeral.
Rygg addressed this restlessness in interviews: “The most risky thing we could do now is probably to do something similar next time. We’ve gained that kind of reputation. It’s almost like it’s expected for the next album to be jazz improv or something.” The fact that Liminal Animals continues the synth-pop direction might actually be their most surprising move: staying in one place for more than one album.
Pan Dies, the World Ends, the Music Plays
The myth of Pan’s death that “Forgive Us” draws from comes from Plutarch’s Moralia, written in the first century AD. Early Christians later interpreted Pan’s death as a symbol of the old pagan world ending with the arrival of Christ. Ulver strip the myth of its religious framework and turn it into something more universal: the feeling that the center has collapsed, that whatever deity or system was supposed to hold things together has gone, and all that’s left is a prayer in two directions at once. Up, and down. Remember us. Forgive us.
In a discography that has touched on Princess Diana’s death, the burning of Rome under Nero, and the assassination of Julius Caesar, the death of Pan fits naturally. Ulver have always been drawn to moments where an old world ends and the new one hasn’t arrived yet. “Forgive Us” might be the purest expression of that preoccupation: no story, no historical detail, just the raw fact of abandonment.
Common Questions
Q: What is “Forgive Us” by Ulver about? A: The song retells the myth of Pan’s death from Plutarch’s writings. A sailor named Thamus is told by a divine voice to proclaim that “the great god Pan is dead.” Ulver use this as a framework for a song about abandonment, asking forgiveness from both the sky and the earth. Kerrang! called it “a lament for the trickster god Pan.”
Q: Who plays trumpet on “Forgive Us”? A: Norwegian jazz legend Nils Petter Molvaer, known for albums like Khmer(1997) and Solid Ether (2000). His trumpet adds what Ever Metal described as “Pink Floyd-esque grandeur” and “soul-stirring” quality to the track.
Q: When was “Forgive Us” released? A: First released as a single on May 31, 2024, paired with “Nocturne #1.” Later collected on the album Liminal Animals (November 29, 2024) on House of Mythology.
Q: What genre is Ulver now? A: Liminal Animals is synth-pop and dark electronic, continuing from The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2017) and Flowers of Evil (2020). Comparisons include Depeche Mode, Talk Talk, and Cold War-era Berlin synthwave. Ulver began as a black metal band in 1993 and have been genre-shifting ever since.
Q: Who is Liminal Animals dedicated to? A: Tore Ylwizaker, Ulver’s longtime synth player who passed away in August 2024. Although the album was composed before his death, it serves as an unintended tribute to his contribution across decades of the band’s music.
Q: What are the lyrics to “Forgive Us”? A: The song is spare: “Captain, are you there? This is a perfect storm. Let it be heard: the great god Pan is dead. The throne is empty. We are alone.” The chorus alternates between “Spirit of the sky, remember us” and “Spirit of the earth, forgive us.”
Q: What is the Pan myth referenced in the song? A: It comes from Plutarch’s Moralia (first century AD). During Emperor Tiberius’s reign, a sailor was commanded by a divine voice to announce Pan’s death. When he did, the shore erupted in groans and laments. Early Christians interpreted this as symbolizing the end of paganism.