Folkesange - Myrkur (2020)

Ideated from: going through some of my “best of month” lists I’ve been keeping for years.

This is off the “best of month, April 2020” list. Other things on this list: ADHD by Joyner Lucas, Dark Woven Light by Fool’s Ghost, Heaven To A Tortured Mind by Yves Tumor

This record is Swedish folk music, largely made with traditional instruments I can’t even pronounce, and using a vocal technique called Kulning that is fascinating in its own right. You might reasonably ask why I would ever have heard of this thing. A previous record of hers mixed the folk music with one of Sweden’s other main exports, black metal. There’s a definite kinship between the two styles of music, and you can see in this music where the stark iciness of Swedish black metal comes from. But that mix got her noticed in places that write about metal and not about Scandinavian folk music. And even though this record is all folk, no metal, she still gets noticed by that crowd, which is how I heard about it. The Internet is a weird and occasionally wonderful place.

This is a very modern-sounding recording of traditional-sounding music that is still very modern in a lot of construction and details. There are a lot of droning notes, both instrumental and vocal, that get layered to make a powerful and hypnotic mix. There’s a great sense of dynamics, as songs build and ebb for effect. There’s the occasional English lyric (“House Carpenter” is an obscure Bob Dylan song I didn’t know about til I heard this version) and the occasional stab at more recognizable pop structures. But the overall atmosphere and aura is what makes this great.

Tracks I Liked

Leaves of Yggdrasil - a gorgeous tune that is weirdly one of the most metal-sounding tracks, even though there isn’t a guitar or drum in sight.

Tor i Helheim - beautiful ringing vocals

Gammelkäring - The lilting vocal complements the string instruments well. I can’t help but think it sounds like a much prettier slowed-down version of the Leekspin song (I’m told that song is Finnish, but close enough)