[3] The concert also included performances from artist Ian Johnstone, “welcoming everyone as Mr. Ark Todd in a static dance under a levitating moon, and parting with a pillar, on the skeleton legs of a horse, pale and naked as nature intended.

The two pieces were accompanied by piano prepared by Daniel and the sound of a sleeping beast from Kris' pad.”[4] Until recently Ulver had remained exclusively within the studio.

Stig Sæterbakken finally persuading the band to play their first concert at the Norwegian Festival of Literature in May 2009, fans came from all over the world – including Australia, Japan, Canada and the US.

While the band's roots lie in clattering black metal, their evolution began with the release of 1998's openly progressive Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

By the time they'd got to Shadows of the Sun, they'd wandered still further away from their gnashing early work, sitting at the remote, windswept crossroads of art-rock, ambient adventurism, improvisational noise, and the hymnal aspects of modern classical music.