Exclusive: The Last Kingdom composers tells us about Destiny Is All album

The Last Kingdom is over, but its music still rings in our ears. Over the course of five seasons and the follow-up film Seven Kings Must Die, The Last Kingdom had an epic soundtrack with sweeping orchestral instrumentation, haunting vocals, and atmospheric electronic tones. The music for the series was composed by John Lunn, Danny Saul, and Faroese music artist Eivør. It’s been a defining element of The Last Kingdom throughout its run, featuring unique elements like Eivør’s iconic throat singing in the show’s main theme that set it apart from many other historical fiction and fantasy soundtracks.

To mark the end of the series, Lunn, Saul, and Eivør have just released a new companion album, The Last Kingdom: Destiny Is All. We spoke to John Lunn and Eivør about the release, why they decided to create this album instead of a more traditional soundtrack, and their time working on The Last Kingdom. Watch our conversation right here:

The Last Kingdom: Destiny Is All is much more than a soundtrack album

The biggest thing to know about The Last Kingdom: Destiny Is All is that it is not a soundtrack album. Instead, Lunn, Eivør, and Saul drew on music from the show as well as the follow-up film Seven Kings Must Die to create an entirely new album of music. There are familiar mainstays from the series, such as its opening theme and “Lívstræðrir” (Uhtred’s theme), but with a ton of new musical elements that differentiate them from the songs used in the actual series.

“I’ve been doing a lot of TV and film now for about 30 years, and I always find soundtrack albums kind of slightly frustrating,” Lunn said of the decision to do a companion album. “There might be three or four cues that work really well on their own, and then inevitably there’s about 10 or 12 cues that don’t really make much sense without the pictures beside them. And then the fact that Eivør was an artist already in her own right and had her own following, and also the fact that she was a vocalist and we had a singer, which is quite unusual for a lot of soundtracks.”

The Last Kingdom: Destiny Is All album available now

Lunn and Eivør also told us about working on The Last Kingdom more generally these past several years. “The Last Kingdom was the first work for film and TV that I did, actually,” Eivør said. “And it’s been going on now for almost eight years, and it’s come to an end. It’s a strange feeling, because it’s been such a big part of my life the past years. And yeah, it has definitely inspired my approach to my own music, and just become a part of my creative inner landscape.”

A huge thank you to John and Eivør for stopping by to tell us about their work on their new album!

The Last Kingdom: Destiny Is All is out now on music streaming services and retailers. Seven Kings Must Die is streaming on Netflix. To Bebbanburg!

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