Irdorath – Live In The Woods (2025)

13 Mar

I still remember the first time I heard Irdorath. I was coming home from work and my partner Anna had been listening to the quarantine edition of Castlefest the whole day. “You have to watch this band I just saw.” she said. “You will love them.” So I sat down, turned to the section she told me about and there was this band in the middle of the woods, dressed like Corvus Corax, already mesmerizing me with their spoken intro… and then they started playing. Anna was right. I loved them. More than that, I sat there with my mouth open for the whole 40-something minutes the video lasted. The music, the best mittelalter rock/fantasy power folk I heard in a long while. The setting, deep in the woods, perfectly lit with fire bowls all around them. The decoration of the set, The narration, the camera work – it all worked. And I was not the only one: the whole live chat exploded. It was there and then that my love for this amazing Belarusian band started. Within weeks I had all their albums and wrote a full album review covering their whole discography up to that point.

Fast forward five years, and a new song from Irdorath popped up in my Spotify Release Radar. It was part of a new live CD. Listening to it on my crappy Bluetooth speaker I already noticed it sounded different then I was used to from the other Irdorath albums; more open. Looking at the tracklist, I hoped it would be that famous Castlefest performance . It really looked like it. So full of anticipation, I put on my headphones the next morning, pressed play on Spotify… …and was as blown away as I was the very first time that I saw them! THIS, dear readers, is a must-have album!

It all starts with the opening track, Storm. The low drone gives you a mythical vibe straightaway. The cello lines are pure beauty. The sprinkles of percussion brightening up the intro finish it all. So beautiful. And then, after 50 seconds, the band kicks in! Now make sure you that you listen on headphones the first time you hear this album. And don’t be shy with the sound. You want to experience this to the fullest. You want to drown in the sound. You want to be overwhelmed by it all. And trust me, you will be. So headphones on and here we go!

The cello riff, the acoustic guitar, the drums and percussion are picking up speed. The shawm bagpipes join in make the sound even bigger, even more majestic. Then the main melody sets in, and I’m amazed of all the things I hear. The amount of space all the instruments have to breathe. The openness of the sound. The little details you can hear. Listen to that cello laying down the song’s foundation while the shawm’s main melody entices you. You can hear every single stroke, every single riff played. This is so powerful. Did you already turn up the volume on your headphones? I did!

We continue with Serca Raskolata. Again, the sound is so open and so dynamic. The whispered intro by Nadezhda, accompanied by a loud battle horn, are sincerely scary. The whole first verse of the song has a eerie tension running through it. Nadezhda is building the song up so well. From the whispered start to the full rounded sound she has, she can tell a whole story with her voice. I can’t understand a word she is saying but I feel it. THAT is the power of her voice.

Again, I’m struck by the cello solo that follows. Live In The Woods is actually an unplugged album when you think about it. Gone is the full rock sound I know from their previous albums Ad Astra, Dreamcatcher and Wild. No, Live In The Woods has an acoustic approach that is mesmerisingly beautiful, but just as powerful. The power lies in all the things they left out. All the effects, all the sound tricks. You hear the pure beauty of the instruments, of the music itself. And that is more then enough to blow you away.

When you decide to record music like this, there is nowhere to hide. You are fully exposed as a musician. Not something Irdorath have to worry about. Just listen to it all: the beautiful range of vocal technique Nadezhda has, from whispered and restrained to full belt. And Vladimir’s vocals dancing with her. His technical abilities are even bigger. From a deep supporting voice to a full lead just like Nadezhda, but he can add throat singing to that: deep and rasping, scary as hell in this song. He is almost rapping with it here.

Everything is great about this power ballad. The solos the composition, the structure of the song. The clever choice of instruments, of tone range, all of them in a different height so you can hear all of it. I’m long gone, drawn into the magical world of Belarusian folklore.

Yet the highlight of this album -in my opinion- is still to come, and it goes by the name of Dimna Juda. It also comes in the shape of Aliaxandra Grahouskaja. She has been a close friend of the band since their very beginning, and her part in Dimna Juda is just stunning. I loved this song when I heard it for the first time played by Waldkauz, but Irdorath brought it to the next level for me. And this live recording is the ultimate version. Can’t wait to hear it live myself now that Aliaxandra has joined the band.
The harmonies between the voices work so well in this song. The deep throat singing of Vladimir, Nadezhda’s mid range vocals taking the supporting role in this song, and then Aliaxandra’s improvised lead vocals. Rapping, long powerful swipes, full belts, and added to that all those vocal twirls and fringes that make Eastern European folk music so beautiful.
All three of them have such powerful voices; such big lungs, and they use them to the fullest. What a band; what a sound; what a song! I was honestly crying the first time I heard it again preparing for this review, such is the impact this band, these people, have on me. It happened again after Rusalka.

To be honest I’m tearing up again right now writing these words with Live In The Woods playing on my headphones.
It is because I’m so happy for Nadezhda and Vladimir that they could release this album. That this is their answer to all that happened to them in the past five years. I want to quote a bit of the band itself at this point, taken from the booklet that goes with the CD.
-”In the rush of 2020, when the world came to a halt during quarantine, we retreated to the solitude of the Belarusian forest, isolated from the world yet connected to nature’s spirit. Among ancient trees and under an open sky we recorded our forest concert]..[It was a moment of unity; of fire; song and nature, crafted with immense love for the land that shaped us.
Soon after, the streets of Belarus filled with voices yearning for freedom and we joined this peaceful protest]…[However our voices were silenced by imprisonment for daring to stand against injustice
For two years we were held, but the love for our home and art endured. This forest concert became more then a performance. It transformed into a powerful symbol. It was the last piece of art we created in Belarus. A love letter to a home we were forced to leave.”

There is nothing I can add to these words. They say so much about Nadezhda and Vladimir, and they say so much about the band Irdorath. Because although Nadezhda and Vladimir are the main forces behind it all, it does feel like a band – it always has. That is the true power of this beautiful couple. Their willingness to share, to give and to love even in the hardest moments.
That is what shines through in their music, in their art. That is what makes this album so very special. And that is why we should support them with everything we have… …starting with buying this album.

Cliff

Editor: Iris
Photograph 1 & 2: Irdorath
Photograph 3: Merlin J. Noack
Photograph 4: Anastasiya & Pavel Kodis

You can find Irdorath here:

Noiduin – Korven Kolkon Kainalossa (2022)
Alinen (2023)

03 Mar

Noiduin is a Finnish dark folk band that I have been following since their debut EP Korven Kolkon Kainalossa came out in 2022. Fascinated by the sound of the jouhikko and Finnish folklore, founding member Jemina Kärvi started building her own instrument and writing her own music.
Over the last three years Noiduin has recorded two EP’s and 3 singles; they have gained more and more momentum among fans of Nordic folk music and the band itself has grown in numbers as well. The current line up consist of Jemina (Vocals, jouhikko); Henri (Vocals, jouhikko, kantele); Matilda (Vocals, jaw harp, percussion; Aila (Vocals, bowed monochord bass) and Mikko (Drums, percussion).
With a possible new album looming in the future it’s about time we finally guide you into the world of ancient Finnish musical folklore that is Noiduin.

The first notes on Tuulen Teitä, the opening song on the 2022 EP Korven Kolkon Kainalossa, immediately pulls you into Noiduin’s music. It sounds ancient, archaic, haunting and mythical. The sound of the jouhikko (a Finnish relative of the talharpa) is both eerie and beautiful. Using it as the lead instrument only accompanied by a wee bit of synths sweeps you right into the dark Finnish woods of 1500 years ago, when the Finnish people still lived their lives the old way, undisturbed by their Viking neighbours.
That eerie atmosphere is enhanced by Jemina’s whispered voice greeting the moon, the day and the air. The tastefully added choir and synth sounds make these opening bars sound as a blend of Cuelebre’s debut album and Waldkauz’s Mythos album but with a decisively Nordic feel to it. Especially the sound effects on the spoken word spells make me think of the Zwielicht (Twilight), the opening track on Mythos.

Now it’s in the nature of reviewers to look for comparisons in music. It is the easiest way to describe music to someone else using words. But with Noiduin that approach doesn’t work. They have their own unique sound. The themes, the instruments, the choirs and the vocals are all what you would expect from Nordic music. But the comparisons I’ve written down in my notebook while listening to Noiduin’s music are with Spanish bands: Cuelebre, Trobar de Morte, even Ritual Duir. The only exceptions where the Polish band Furda and the German band Waldkauz. So not a Nordic band in sight!

That’s because Noiduin just sounds different. They have their own unique style. It sounds ancient but fresh, with a cool danceable feel to it. Just listen to Karhun Synty. It has a tribal beat in it that instantly makes your feet wobble. A song like Käärmeen Synty from their second EP Alinen even sounds cheeky and fun. The rhythm urges you to dance. That infectious rhythm is carried through in the harsh spoken word vocals of Henri with a very cool call and answer section that is sooo catchy. Just like the vocals used by Furda. Jemina’s vocals dancing around Henri’s harsh vocals; sometimes whispered; sometimes harsh; sometimes in a yoik; sometimes in a full lead voice; sometimes even screaming are the icing on the cake.
In the whispered spoken voice sections or the subdued singing parts Jemina has the same tone of voice as Rose Avalon (Ritual Duir) and the beautiful ballad Suru could easily be on a Trobar de Morte album if it weren’t for all the Nordic instruments being played.

So Noiduin is not your typical Nordic folk band that builds layer upon layer of epicness. In an interview the band did with Jameson Foster on the Nordic Sound Channel, Jemina was asked if the band has a preconceived vision of how the sound of the music should be. I wasn’t surprised that Jemina and Henri said that the band doesn’t work like that. Jemina just writes songs based on how she feels, or how the lyrics inspire her. And you can hear that. Noiduin’s music sounds fresh, organic and free. I want to sing along with it, I want to dance and join in. These are songs rather than ritual experiences. And I’m loving it.

There is another reason why Noiduin isn’t your typical Nordic folk band. Reducing their (Finnish) music to the Viking aesthetic would not do justice to the uniqueness of the Finnish culture. Whereas the Vikings were a part of the Germanic tribes living in north-western Europe during Roman times, the origins of the Finns lie with nomadic tribes living in the north-eastern part of Europe and Asia, even as far as Siberia. This means their mythology, culture and folklore are totally different from those of the Vikings.
In their lyrics Noiduin explore that old Finnish heritage, just as their fellow musicians of Goi do.
The name Noiduin means: ‘casting a spell‘ and in their lyrics the Henri and Jemina continue the Finnish tradition of casting spells to help with everyday life or to connect with the spirits living around them. In the interview with the Nordic Sound Channel the couple explain that in Finnish folklore everything has a spirit, from the animals to the oldest caves and mountains.
In their lyrics Henri and Jemina sometimes use the spells themselves, sometimes they get in the skin of Finnish creatures, but in other songs Noiduin use the language of spells and spirits to share their own emotions. Uni, the opening ballad of Alinen is a beautiful example of that. Just read the translation as you listen to the song and you will know what I mean.

A Fresh Organic Feel
All in all I just love the music of Noiduin. Their use of authentic, self-build instruments. I love the organic feel of their songs. I love the contrast between the harsh spoken word vocals of Henri against the powerful female vocals of Jemina. Sometimes whispered, sometimes bursting out in full power, with just the right amount of edge to make her vocals work really well in this dark folk setting. The Finnish language itself is pleasant to listen too. The lyrics flow smoothly even if I have no idea what they mean without a translator.

I love the fun bits Noiduin adds to their music. The jaw harp ‘beat’ in Loitsu and Karhun Synty for instance, the double harsh vocals in Hiienn Hurtta or the native chant-like vibes I get from Nostatus. But I also love the simplicity of the band’s sound. The songs are kept simple and to the point, and the music sounds open. Every instrument gets enough space to shine within the overall sound without being drowned out by all kinds of synthesizer layers, sound effects or other things. All the instruments have room to breathe. Yet if you listen carefully there are all kinds of fun elements woven into the arrangements to enrich the sound: Added instruments, sound effects, clever use of backing vocals, and especially that rhythmical natural flow, that ritual heartbeat flowing through it all.

Jemina recorded and produced Korven Kolkon Kainalossa, herself on [quote] ‘the cheapest recording equipment available‘. Well, she can be really proud of those recordings as the sound is pretty good for a self-produced release. Alinen, also recorded and produced by Jemina, sounds even better. More crisp and open, which gives more room to all those cool musical surprises hidden in the music to enrich the songs. It’s cool to hear how much Jemina… No, how much the bánd have grown in just a years time.It’s pretty amazing actually.
You’ve seen the name Jemina a lot in this review. Although she is the founding member of the band,is credited as writing all the music on both EP’s, and is also credited for the lyrics together with her fellow band member and husband Henri, Noiduin does sound and feel like a true band, and not a solo project.

Fans of archaic dark folk bands like Furda or Cuelebre will love these two EP’s. But also fans of Folk Noir, Kaunan, or Waldkauz’s Mythos album will. Actually anybody who loves authentic archaic pagan folk should go and check out Noiduin’s music on Bandcamp. There isn’t a bad song on there! And while you are there keep an eye out for the new album the band is working on. If the new singles Nouse Maa and Päästa Minun are anything to go by then that next album is bound to be another dark folk gem.

Cliff

My thanks go out to Jameson Forster of the Nordic Sound Channel who did a fun interview with Noiduin. If you want to know more back ground information about the band be sure to check that out.

Editor: Sara Weeda
Photograph 1: Sami Teeri
Photograph 2: Hannu Juutilainen
Photograph 3: Noiduin

You can find Noiduin here:

Oliver Satyr – Munin (2023)

10 Jan

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But what if it concerns a CD, are you allowed to do it then? A quite valid question when it comes to Munin, Oliver Satyr‘s first solo album, as its cover is actually a whole book. 60 pages of memories to be precise. Each memory connected to to the eleven songs Oliver selected for this album. Each memory illustrated with period pictures and some beautiful illustrations, making this album something really personal.

Folk Noir

But is is not only personal for Oliver Satyr. I have my own memories attached to some of the songs as well. One of the first pagan folk albums I bought was the EP Songs From Home by Folk Noir, a project Oliver formed in 2012 together with his then-partner Kati Rán. It is still one of my all time favourite folk albums.
Oliver and Kati share the same type of silky soft voice. Nourishing; caressing; poetic; warm. That fate brought those two voices together is a gift from the Norns I’m still grateful for. I am so glad one of the songs Kati and Oliver recorded together, The Road, has found its way on Munin. As did the Paris Paloma version of You Should Have Seen Me There. In my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful folk songs ever recorded. Soft, poetic and tender in every word sung, every guitar note played, it caresses my ears and calms my mind every single time I hear it. Especially the marimba rhythm flowing through the whole song, soothing me into a trance, only enhanced by Paris and Oliver’s whispered singing, their voices blending together just as well as Kati and Oliver’s did.

The official video clip of The Road performed by Folk Noir – 2012

The Ragged Wood and She Moves Through The Fair are the two other songs from that precious Folk Noir EP that found its way onto Munin. And I’m glad they did. They showcase Oliver Satyr as the poetic minstrel he is.

Feengold

In 2020 Oliver made another album born out of love, this time with his current partner Gina Wetzel.

It, too, was a combination of a book and an album. The album, called Feengold, was a limited edition hardcover fairy tale book beautifully illustrated by Gina, containing an audio CD with songs, spoken fairy tales and poems, all spoken by Oliver himself. A true collector’s item.
Four songs of Feengold were selected for Munin: Der Wettersee, Mit Uti Gröna Lunden, Knivens Polska and Näktergal. The first two songs are in the same style as Folk Noir. Oliver has that magical ability to create poetry, not only with his voice but also with the music he plays. His arrangements are both subtle and calming, but also rich, warm and full, forming a blanket of sound that give his beautiful voice all the room it needs. The subtle samples and rhythms he puts under it give it a sort of acoustic ambient folk feel. It’s a sound I find truly mesmerizing. I cannot help but sink deeper and deeper into the songs until I become one with them. That’s the magic of Oliver Satyr’s music.

Der Wettersee by Oliver Satyr and Gina Wetzel, Illustrations by Gina Wetzel

Swedish Folk

Besides neofolk, Oliver also has a second love: Swedish folk. A love he explored to the fullest on long nights playing with Boris Koller, a nyckelharpa player and painter from Austria with whom he formed Kaunan.
Of course we can also find this love back on Munin. Knivens Polska, Näktergal and Polska Efter Lorn Anders are three short instrumental melodies that take us deep into the dark snow-rich Swedish forests where we can find our lone musicians around a winter’s campfire, playing to keep warm. Playing with a feeling of longing and intent that make me wonder if they aren’t half satyr, half troll themselves, forest creatures on their way to who knows where. Maybe the forest on the cover of the album? We will never know.

All in all Munin is just what Oliver promised it would be: a journey through his memories, written in music. But it also showcases the unique talents of one young musician who watched other bards play, sitting around the campfires of the German medieval markets many, many years ago. Well, he became just that. A minstrel, a poet, a fairy tale teller and an artist who embodies all that is beautiful about neofolk.

Munin is only availabe in the Faun webshop or at a Faun concert. Make sure you visit them this season to get hold of this beautiful album – it is well worth it.

Cliff

Editor: Iris
CD cover photo: Gina Wetzel
Graphic design cover: Gabriel deVue (FB)

Oliver Satyr can be found here:

The Devils Drink, Sunfire’s new album finally out

24 Nov

On Friday the 17th of November, Sunfire released their long awaited new Album The Devils Drink, just a day before the premiere of their Tales Of The Old West theatre tour in Rijswijk, and it is everything it promised to be. A wonderful collection of western folk songs as only Sunfire can make them.

Opening song The Devils Drink is a great introduction to their new theatre show. It is a ballad with a strong theatrical feel reminiscent of Ye Banished Privateers, or the Spleen Orchestra, even making me think of an old classic like: If I Were A Rich Man from the musical Fiddler On The Roof but always with that unique Western folk feel Sunfire have.
The sound of Sophie’s sobbing violin combined with Satria’s breaking gritty voice truly make this song. The ‘broken-pianola-playing-over-a windswept-violin’ segment becomes the first icing on this wonderful western folk cake.

For those who do not know Sunfire yet, the band makes a powerful mix of Americana and blue grass with touches of European folk, brought with the sharpness, power and energy that comes pretty close to some good old stoner rock. In Sunfire’s case, I find it extremely hard to think of bands to compare them with as they really have their own signature sound, but artists in the style of The Last Knife Fighter, Mean Mary or J.J. Cale come to mind, albeit Sunfire’s music is more rough and feisty than the before-mentioned artists.

We have come to know main lyricist Satria Karsono as a true storyteller, setting his songs in a version of the old wild west that seems to come from the combined minds of Sergio Leone and Tim Burton. We find his alter ego William J. Tanner in that dirty old place called Sinners Town again, where only the lowlifes, the bad and the ugly can survive. This album is filled with more stories of madame Sawyer, Deputy Frost, Banker Henry River and off course William J. Tanner himself.

Sunfire took their time recording this record, so many songs already became well known live favourites The Dolly Parton follow-up song Jolene for example; or the tragic ‘failed-marriage-before-it-even-started’ song Silently Passed Away; the upbeat americana-folk song Frost; Seven Deadly Sins with an interesting re-arrangement half way through, or the cheeky fan favourite Sawyer’s Dance.
The new songs: The Devils Drink – which I mentioned above; Ballad of River – a dark murder ballad that tells you nothing but suggests everything; One Day – a duet with Brotherwood singer Nicole Koning-Bouw, starting gently but building up to an impressive ‘Ghost Riders In The Sky on steroids’ climax; and the country ballad Leave The Bottle, they all fit right into the Sunfire world we got to know so well.

My personal favourite songs would be Grit, a heart wrenching power ballad showcasing the best of Satria’s abilities as a singer. A grooving bass, guitarriffs that cut like a chainsaw and a windswept violin provide the perfect basis for Satria’s anguished end notes. Truly awesome stuff!

My second favourite has to be Sunfire’s Opus magnum The Hunter. A western Folk epos equaling John Miles’ masterpiece Music. A whole movie in one song, epic in its build, played sharp as a knife, building up to a climax played with so much attack, so tight, it really sounds like a gunfight put down to music! Breathtaking is the word here! The whole album is perfectly mixed, but here sound engineer Berend de Vries and Jeffrey de Gans, who was responsible for the mastering, truly shine!

The Devils Drink brings you Sunfire at their very best. Catchy songs, talented musicians and lyrics with a dark sense of humour that puts a smile on your face every single time you hear them. Which leaves me with one question. Is that a hidden track suddenly popping up at two-thirds of the album? If so it is a last masterstroke of this awesome band that knows how to surprise even their biggest fans time and time again, including me.

Cliff

Editor: Sara Weeda

PS: coming back to that theatre tour… It’s brilliant! Truly original in its setup, bringing the best out of the story telling qualities hidden within the band. Even bringing out their acting skills! You don’t want to miss out on this. Trust me, you really don’t!

You can find Sunfire here:

Furda – Bojany (2022)

30 Sep

I seem to have known Ren (FB) for just as long as I’ve been part of the Alternative Folk scene. I first noticed his talents as he uploaded some snippets of him covering OMNIA songs on Flute. And he continued to do that. Sometimes a cover. Sometimes a doodle he played on a newly built flute, sometimes a sketch he recorded with some new studio equipment he acquired, a bit later also some videos of him working with fire. And every time I was amazed by his talent.

From those first ‘doodles’ on I encouraged Ren to do something with his talent. And boy, did he do just that. In June of last year a package from Poland fell on my doormat. In it was an album called Bojany by the band Furda, a collaboration between Ren and musician/instrument builder Jakub Podskarbi (FB), and it blew me away. Especially the quality and musicianship on it. This was quite some debut they recorded and it didn’t take long before a couple of their songs made it to my personal CeltCast reviewers delights Spotify list. Sadly for them I needed a break from reviewing at that time, so the album never got the attention it truly deserved. Time to make up for it now.

Let’s start by asking Ren (right hand side) how he met Jakub Podskarbi (on the left):
–’ I met Jakub, or cukier (sugar) as we call him, at a Polish folk festival some years ago. We both can’t remember anymore which festival it was.’ He laughs:
–‘ Anyhow, Cukier was playing with his other band at this festival and in the evening we jammed with a group of musicians around a fire probably and that is how we met. After that I worked a while with a member of his other band Sumana (FB), in the end Cukier became involved and that in a way was the start of Furda. Bojany is the first album we recorded together.’

The Album

Well, I’m happy they did as Furda’s music is interesting from the very first beat the recorded. Listening to it with headphones is almost mandatory.

The intro Wdech is an almost improvised percussion piece with added overtone flute. Beautifully mixed by Jakun and Ren, also beautifully mastered by Maurycy Zóltanski (FB).

It’s an intriguing combination of neo-folk with an almost Japanese percussion sauce poured over it. Really cool.

It also has an ‘old ‘ feel to it. As if this song was captured for centuries in the swamps of time and now is suddenly freed again. Like a bubble of methane popping out of the surface.

Title track Bojany

Title track Bojany has that same ‘old’ almost Neolithical feel to it. That feeling is ignited by the haunting sound of the suka biłgorajska: an ancient Polish string instrument, related to the violin but sound wise more similar to the nyckelharpa. It was extinct for a long time, but, like many old instruments in the neo folk scene, was rediscovered and makes its return here.

Ren: –‘Jakub is not only a musician but also an instrument maker who specialises in recreating or restoring old instruments. The instrument you mentioned, the suka biłgorajska is actually made by him. Our goal is to build all the instruments we use ourselves. We also try to achieve an ‘antique’ sound when we record our music, fitting with the instruments we play.‘

Back to the song itself. The deep throat singing, the almost crying duduk, and the before mentioned haunted suka biłgorajska sound make this such a gothic song. With a lovely build up by the way. It keeps growing. An overtone flute solo, a kid running around, (As if Alison Shaw, singer of the Cranes, rushes by). Another old instrument, the jouhikko, makes an appearance as well. You would also think you here some deep synthesizer bass sounds, but Ren tells me that are sounds created by putting the suka biłgorajska through some guitar effects.

–’ We love to do that, take the acoustic instruments and play with them with effects. Because we do it with guitar effects we can reproduce that sound live as well. It’s all part of the improvised live set we play.’

Fooled

Furda made an official video to go with this song and in the accompanying text they explain what the song is about. [or so I thought]
– ‘For quite some time, the scarecrows have been disappearing from the fields. Locals thought this to be a mere prank pulled off by some kids, so one morning they decided to set up a trap for the mysterious jester. No one knows what really happened there, but since that day, all three volunteers, who wanted to catch the scarecrow thief, have not been able to utter a single word apart from B… bo… bo… bo… BOJANY!!!”

Ney Haro

The story, and the overall feel of the album, make me wonder if all the songs on Bojany are based on Polish Folklore. Ney Haro again has that dark feel. This music seems to slowly flow into your living room, caried by thick ‘shards’ of fog. Dark brown from the moors it arose from, black from the branches it past, Greenish wet from the lichen it touched, heavy from the myths it witnessed on its way. Or is it? Looking up the lyrics google translate ended up choosing Bengaly as the source of origin not Polish. I needed to ask Ren about that.

–‘I’m afraid we fooled you on both parts Cliff. Jakub actually made up the story you mentioned. That story that Bojany was based on a Polish Folklore story. [thanks Ren, that takes care of about 5 questions on the subject I had lined up. ] So no, the songs aren’t directly related to any mythical folk tale. Although the village where I live – which is called Bojany – is full of myths and ghost stories, so in a way we were influenced by that. Lisek for instance is based around a Polish nursery rhyme. But most of the stories we created ourselves, just like the story of Bojany.
For your question if there is Bengalese in there. Well no. All the lyrics are either in Polish or -and that goes for almost all of the songs on Bojany– in languages Jakub and me invented. This is something I already do for a long time, even before we started Furda. Almost all the times I wrote a song I would improvise word-like sounds that fitted well with the music , rather than them having a meaning. Its not something I do beforehand. Its more intuitive during the writing process. Only afterwards, transcribing the improvised words I’m singing I discovered that there are similarities in what I sing. That they become sort of an improvised language.’

Fooled again

Well, they got me fooled again it seems. But the song itself is a gem. the build up again is brilliant. It starts with something I can only describe as whispered Neolithical beat boxing. Or to put it differently, as if Gollum mysteriously cloned himself and all the Gollum’s decided to join in just for fun. And this is only the start. One by one elements are added. The suka biłgorajska bass effect sets the dark swamp mood. Gollums beat boxing sets the rhythm. Some humming, some shakers, a frame drum, a xaphoon, one after another shards of music drift into the song. There is no other word for it. And the vocals just finish it of. This is what an Neolithical soundscape should sounds like.

Mythical neo folk fun

An important thing about this whole album: it is fun. That is the really cool part about it all. Although the songs sound dark, like they come from some ancient deep dark Polish primordial wood, they don’t feel black. They have something fun and mischievous about them. Something troll-like.

A song that just screams ‘trollish-mischief’ is Lisek, the song Ren mentioned above. The wailing sound of the suka biłgorajska opening the song is pure genius. You could almost mistake it for the distant chant of a whale. Spooky yet unearthly beautiful. The repeated whispered vocals make this song increasingly eerie. Done like that, the lyrics become the heartbeat the of the song. The rhythm instead of the melody. Trust me, no kid will be soothed by this nursery rhyme. None at all.
Jakub and Ren love to play around with their vocals like this. They use the vocals as yet another instrument to add flavour to their sound. Characters manifest themselves trough their vocals. In this particular case it is as if Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars) joins the trolls for a midnight jam session. The Irish bouzouki riff under the vocal beat is catchy as hell. The soprano recorder and overtone flute solo are the finishing icing on the cake. A cake I gladly skip when the Jar Jar/troll choir picks up speed and ends in a maniacal spiral dance of some sort. This is not music this is a trap. And Furda are luring me in, deeper and deeper. Lisek is easily one of the best songs on Bojany.

Furdana is another of my favourites. Again it starts with a vocal beat indicating the rhythm, which continues throughout the song. The xaphoon -or Sax flute as it is called in Dutch- makes this ballad sound like a beautiful mix of the Nordic folk played by Fuimadane and the Eastern folk melodies we know from Irfan. Ren and Jakub truly created their own musical world. A world slightly dark, a bit gritty, a bit mischievous but with beautiful melodies. And I’m loving it.

Some background

Ren explains about the rhythmical build-up of most of the songs:
–‘ We didn’t get together in the way a band normally would. Actually one day, while we were considering the possibility of maybe doing something together, Jakub just messaged me and said he had arranged a gig for us at a festival. We were due to play 2 weeks later. But we didn’t have a song let alone a set or anything. So we decided twe wanted a two men band, using a lot of our instruments. The only way to do that was using a technique called live looping. A technique were you play a certain melody live and then loop that on the spot, building up a song right there and then as you go. The first gig was a bit hard as we still were learning and we didn’t make it easy on ourselves as we wanted to build up complex songs with many instruments but only played by the two of us and the assistance of those loops. But nowadays it works really well and our live performances are characterized by a lot of improvisation over those loops creating the song base.
Back to that first concert. We met up at Jakubs house in the days before with a lot of instruments and we wrote some song sketches that we rehearsed once before going on stage with them. A rather stressful experience to be honest. After that we worked more on those song sketches and in the end figured out how we could make the whole idea work for us.’
I find it interesting that Ren describe your songs as Sketches, as I have a line in my notes that says: “The music seems to be build up like a painting. First the rhythm – quite often a vocal rhythm – is laid down as a sketch. Then the first melody is thrown down like the base colour of the painting. With that settled, the colours come one by one, brush strokes that add or subtract from the song, slowly but surely building it up to a lovely yet slightly weird piece of musical artwork.”

Exhaustion and carpentry; a very special recording session

The start-up of Furda as a band was a strange one, but the recording of Bojany also wasn’t without its own difficulties Ren explained:

–’ It was in the autumn of ’20/21 that we decided that we wanted to record an album. I live in a wooden house in the forest and we decided to record the album there, taking just two weeks’ time to do it and build a recording studio in my bedroom with Jakub sleeping there with me. Now I can tell you, recording an album in two weeks straight is fun but extremely tiring. . All though the creative part itself is really fun, we won’t do it like that again. As a speedrun like that, waking up, composing, recording, only interrupted by eating and sleeping is extremely exhausting. What made it even harder was that the walls in a wooden cabin are quite thin and my dad’s workshop is right next to my bedroom. And he is a carpenter. So we had to arrange our recording times around his working times to prevent all kinds of weird machine or hammering sounds getting on our sound recordings.’

SeeDish feel

This story reminds me so much of the story of SeeD’s first album. Just going out and recording it in the middle of a forest. In a way Furda and SeeD share this whole ‘forget-about-the-rules-we-just-do-it-like-we-feel’ attitude. They also share that mischievous element in their music. When we come to Zwiędły the similarities become even bigger. This song has something truly SeeDish about it, mixed with an Arabesque flavour for good measure. Ski’la Va is more Trolska Polska meets SeeD featuring Irfan – yes I know, it sounds weird, but trust me, it is there – whereas Skeya Rokha takes me to the early days of OMNIA – especially the Irish Bouzouki part – with Koen (SeeD) on lead vocals.
To be clear these are all just references to give you a sense of the musical diversity that makes up the musical world of Furda. Ren and Jakub let their musical imagination run loose and created a wonderful neo folk world of their own. A world that is unique, intriguing and truly theirs.

Cliff

In this review I used parts of an interview I did with Ren. The whole interview can be found here.

The artwork is from the 1869 reproduction of ‘the drolatic dreams of Pantagruel’ by Louis Perron of Lyon.

Furda can be found here:







Player

Please support us through: iDeal or PayPal

Recent tracks

Loading ...