A dominating group in Norse Music: Heilung
Heilung is a folk and neofolk music band created by members originating from Denmark, Norway and Germany. The name of the group 4heilung’ has a meaning in German that is “to heal”. The main goal of the songs sung by the group — varying to music, poems and spoken word, a style of performance based on oral poems- is to “leaving the listener at ease and in a relaxed state after a magical musical journey that is at time turbulent”( — Wikipedia, Heilung). The group makes references to the early ages of European Civilization, their music being based on ancestral texts, written in runic inscriptions.
The group Heilung has the desire to create, re-create and re-enact music that was first created before the Christian era. They do so bey using runic texts and inscriptions they searched, the music and songs are interpreted and played with ancestral instruments. They reduced the use of electronical and recent instruments to the bare minimum, privileging the use of skin drums (they even have one painted with human blood), the sound of water, buffalo horn rattle, rituals bells, antiques from temples, even bones (a human forearm and deer bones). They make use of whistles and rattles, use the sounds of percussions of their costumes (dressed as Vikings with swords, shields and spears). The group interpret their songs in front of the crowds dressed ancestrally, dressed in animal skins, wooden ornated headdresses and headdresses made out of antlers.
Put like this, it could very much look like a cult, trying to vehiculate some ideologies, or the singers could identify as Voodoos or else, but there is nothing that such about them. You could not find anything like this on the Internet nor in their concerts. They are only trying to tie together the desire to create soul-soothing songs and the search of long forgotten songs from old civilisations and traditions.
They take their audience through a journey to the essence of the world using a peculiar shamanic trance; their songs are embedded with their voices, recollected incantations, shamanic dances on stage, warriors or animal cries, the whole rhythm given by heavy use of the multiple skin drums. The audience is taken through that trance, through this journey back to forgotten ages, where History was not yet written, where natural forces and pagan rites were kings.
Some songs:
- (20) Svanrand — YouTube
- (20) Elddansurin — YouTube
- (20) Norupo — YouTube
- One peak of the type of performance they do: (20) Heilung | LIFA — Krigsgaldr LIVE — YouTube
Sources :
- Wikipedia, Heilung
- Youtube
Viking11 — C.R.
