God of War Ragnarok Musician Plays Exotic Swedish Instrument at Stockholm’s Midnight Release

The release of God of War Ragnarok is being celebrated in a variety of ways around the world, and fans who attended a midnight launch event in Stockholm, Sweden, were greeted by a special surprise.

Musician Erik Rydvall, who worked on the game’s soundtrack, was in attendance at the event and treated the fans with an impromptu performance, as you can see below, courtesy of Reddit user D-A_.

One of the things that make the performance quite special is the specific instrument that Rydvall plays, the exotic (at least if you’re not Swedish) Nyckelharpa.

It’s a string instrument that looks like a violin and a handheld harp (or a hurdy-gurdy) had a baby, and it’s considered the national musical instrument of Sweden.

Considering the Nyckelharpa’s origin and sound, it’s no wonder that composer Bear McCleary picked it to feature in God of War Ragnarok’s epic musical score (albeit we also saw perhaps less epic but definitely hilarious music associated with the game).

If you want to check out more of Rydvall’s performances, you can take a look at his own YouTube channel, where he plays plenty of awesome music

With God of War Ragnarok now available everywhere on both PS5 and PS4 (our own review was really enthusiastic), you can finally get ready for Kratos and Atreus’ new adventure, and it appears that the soundtrack is just as awesome as the game itself.