A little over a week ago we
introduced Cliff
to you all as our latest CeltCast family member and one of the things he said he would be doing for us is reviewing albums. So, it’s time for
the first one!
🙂
Having
Martine Kraft‘s
amazing song “Himmelfot” as our Monthly Marker this month, we thought it would be a good idea to start with a review of the album this song is from, Huldreblot, which was released last May.
In his review Cliff certainly shows what he’s made of, as he delves deep into not only the amazing album that it is, but also into his emotional connections with other music that was triggered by it and he clearly did research to provide the reader with not only relevant but also very interesting background information!
Curious yet? Good! 😀
Head on over to
the review.
You won’t be disappointed!
Martine Kraft – Huldreblod (2017)
07Oct
celtadmin
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Alex and I both have our guilty pleasures. Bands that don’t fit the CeltCast format, but we like anyway. (I have quite a lot actually, but that’s beside the point.) 😉
One of those guilty pleasures we share together, is
Martine Kraft‘s
newest album
‘Huldreblod’.
It made a big impression on us both. As did her performance at
Castlefest,
together with
Kati Ran.
So it’s no surprise one of her songs is the CeltCast Monthly Marker for October. And with that we can also introduce her and her music to the CeltCast community. With pleasure. 🙂
Martine Kraft (34) is a Norwegian musician, singer and composer. Her main instrument is the Hardanger fiddle (in Norse:
Hardingfele),
which is called the Norwegian national instrument and is named after the area it originates from, Hardanger. The first known one was made in 1615. The Hardanger fiddle is quite similar to a ‘normal’ violin with 4 strings that are played with a bow, but under the 4 strings are another 4 or 6 which are lead through the bridge under the ‘main’ strings and which resonate with the upper strings.
Traditionally the Hardanger fiddle is richly decorated with carvings, Mother of Pearl inlays and black ink decorations called
Rosing.
Martine’s personal Hardanger fiddle, called
‘Huldrefela’,
was given to her by the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle fund, in recognition of her work to make this fiddle more widely known. It’s a 10 string Hardanger fiddle with a special tuning mechanism, making it easier to tune while on the road in challenging climates. It was made by the master violin maker
Helge M. Bergnord.
Martine also plays the nyckelharpa (a keyed fiddle and the Swedish national instrument), the ‘ordinary’ violin and the viola (or
Bratsj
as the Norwegians call it), which is a bigger violin with a deeper sound. Beside the violins she also plays several kinds of flutes. On stage as well as on her album, she is accompanied by her Martine Kraft band consisting of her life partner Nils Jørgen Nygaard Kraft on guitar and keyboards (among other things), Stig Enger on electric guitar, Jon Karlsen on bass and Freddy Wike on drums.
Her fifth album
‘Huldreblod’
was recorded in the Enger studio with Stig. He also co-produced the CD together with Nils Jørgen. Martine wrote all the music for the album and almost all the lyrics. Nils Jørgen wrote them for the tracks
‘Huldreblod’ and
‘Himmelfot’.
Track 1: Huldreblod
On the opening track of the CD, the title track
‘Huldreblod’,
Martine showcases that Hardanger fiddle straight away. Huldreblod is a song about the forest nymph
‘Huldra’,
a nymph that fell in love with a human. To be able to be with her lover she lost her abilities as a nymph. Every time she was treated wrong, she lost a little bit of her beauty, but her strength and wisdom stayed with her. In a touching and real personal way, Martine dedicates this whole album to Huldra and the strength we all carry inside. We all can have a bit of Huldra running through our veins. The song itself starts with the sound of a Rhombus, (Norse:
Brummar)
and whispered Norse lyrics, giving us the eerie feel of the dark, misty Norwegian forests where Huldra once lived. The Hardanger fiddle comes in for a fast, ear-catching Prog-rock song. The way the song is built up: the choir, the church organ, the sound of the guitar solo, the break with organ… makes me think of
Mike Oldfield’s
early work. And I mean that in a real complimentary way. This song grabs you and drags you into the album, leaving you with a ear-worm that will stick with you for days. 🙂
Track 2: Sølje
The second song,
‘Sølje’,
is a ballad. A Sølje is a piece of Nordic jewellery, in this case left by Huldra on a path for a young man to be found. Here we hear Martine’s voice for the first time and it is a unique one. High, a wee wee bit hoarse and very young in tone, delicate and fragile, which fits the music really well. Martine uses her voice in the same way as Ágnes Tóth
(The Moon and the Night Spirit),
to enhance the feel of the music she makes. It starts out really gently with only piano, showing her music is about the songs. Not a violin extravaganza. The violin only comes in on the second part of the song with a powerful musical break, kicking this into a pure power-ballad.
Track 3: Frikar
‘Frikar’
starts out with a keyboard intro that, very shortly, reminds me a bit of
Euzen.
It’s a pure Prog-rock intro actually, but then the violin steps in and the music takes a 180° turn into a pure up-tempo Folk song. A tribute to the toughest Norwegian traditional dancers, the Frikar.
Track 4: Villvind
Next
‘Villvind’
starts with a jazzy, jumpy piano intro?! By now it’s getting clear that Martine’s music isn’t straight forward. She likes to tease us listeners, keep us surprised, putting us on the wrong foot, while the music stays catchy and fun at the same time. Impressive. The song goes on as an instrumental, bit jazzy violin improvisation (or at least it feels like that) again within that Prog-rock style. Especially when the music builds up beautifully from a real gentle, fragile violin improvisation into a climax, lead by Stig Enger’s electric guitar. Short, but oh so powerful (and my head suddenly goes ‘Hello,
Dream Theater‘).
At this point it’s also clear that the whole band excels on this album. Just listen to Jon Karlsen’s bass-line on
‘Villvind’.
Track 5: Nar dagen hviler
‘Nar dagen hviler’
is a second ballad. Starting with a moving, Gypsy like violin solo and Martine’s special fragile voice we are drifting away in moon filled dreams. An ambient, dream-scape kinda song.
Track 6: Himmelfot
Which brings us to our Monthly Marker,
‘Himmelfot’.
Here I quote Martine from the introduction she wrote in the booklet:
”My child was born with a birthmark shaped like a cloud on his foot. This song
‘Himmelfot’
means ‘sky foot’ “.
The song starts with the sound of child’s play, and a balladesque intro… but then jumps into a cool cheerful ‘Norwegian’ jig. Bring out the Balfolk dancers!
Track 7: Solefall
‘Solefall’
is a nice mid-tempo Prog-rock song featuring the violin again. With a nice vocal display from Martine to top it off.
Track 8: Mørketid
‘Mørketid’
is a beautiful ballad. It is one of the more personal songs on
‘Huldreblod’
for Martine, judging by her intro in the booklet. And you can hear it. Just read her intro in the booklet and flow with the music. A special mention to the male
‘Joik’ *
on this track. Just another part of the musical diversity of this band proving how they are able to blend Norse (Nordic) traditions into modern songs.
Track 9: Djeveldans & Track 10: Nidhogg
‘Djeveldans’
and
‘Nidhogg’
are up-tempo instrumental Prog-rock songs again. Beautiful, with the violin taking over the role of the electric guitar solo’s. Keeping the sound really clean yet powerful. All kind of musical twists are in there again, as it should be in progressive music. Piano, choirs, breaks… it is all there. Special mention in this case to drummer Freddy Wike in
‘Nidhogg’.
He gets his chance to shine with some impressive double bass drumming. Oh and did I mention the trombone in this song already?!?
Track 11: Ravn
After all this pure energy, the album ends with the ambient ballad
‘Ravn’.
Again, in the booklet, Martine gets real personal in her message to us, the listener. Sharing with us her wishes for future times. Again you can hear it in the music.
‘Ravn’
becomes a beautiful ending to
‘Huldreblod’.
An album I really fell in love with during the listening-sessions for this introduction.
If the idea of a unique mix of progressive Pop/Rock music, with a Hardanger fiddle as lead solo instrument (in stead of screamin’ guitars or keyboards), dipped way deep in Norwegian traditions and folklore appeals to you, then this is your CD. If in doubt, just check out our Monthly Marker
‘Himmelfot’
and be convinced. In the meantime I’m gonna go after the other four Martine Kraft albums. This one made me hungry for more! 🙂
– Cliff
* the Joik is one of the traditional ways of singing of the Sami people. As an art form, each Joik is meant to reflect or evoke a person, animal or place. Music researchers believe that the Joik is one of the longest-living musical traditions in Europe. (all according to Wikipedia)
Our next live event is all set and planned and this time we will be in the pleasant company of
Kati Ran
!
This amazing woman may be best known as the front-woman of her band
LEAF official
., her work with
FolkNoir
and her many many guest appearences with well known artists, but there is so much more to her…
We’ll share it all with you during our live-streamed interview, this friday the 3rd of February around 20:30 CET.
So everyone tune in an join in!
Let’s make this another online party! 😀
L.E.A.F. – LYS (2015)
13Oct
celtadmin
0 Comments
Long awaited, and now it is finally here: The new album of L.E.A.F. called Lys!
Recorded, mixed and mastered throughout the year, today is the day that Kati Ran will present her latest musical endeavour to the world.
LYS is the brainchild of Kati Ran, but there were many others involved. The album was produced by Christoffer Juul at LAVA studio in Denmark, and both Christoffer and Maria Franz of EUZEN perform on the album. Other guest musicians include Kai Uwe Faust of HEILUNG and Oliver S. Tyr of FAUN.
It is an album that is full of deeper meanings, old and ancient poetry, shamanistic rites, and it comes off as an album that was written straight from the heart! Combined with some very nice artwork by Charlotte Boer it has most certainly become a beautiful total package!
Track 1: Flamme
Right away this track opens the album with Kati’s clear and warm voice. The song sounds like an intro, a promise for the rest of the album. The lyrics of the song are by Kati, but with components from Atlamal and Gripisspa, two of the Eddic poems, immediately showing that this album is more than “just music”.
Track 2: Sol
Sol means ‘Sun’, which as the booklet explains has always been very important. The song to me is about man’s journey through time. Like the previous song the lyrics are written by Kati, but this time it contains verses of the poem ‘Let the Light Enter” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. The music starts off simple, but more and more layers get added as the song progresses, which to me can represent not only the seasons of the year, caused of course by the sun, but this can also symbolise life, as it starts off simple but as we grow older we add more and more complexities to life.
Track 3: Ran
The start of this song feels deeply spiritual. When the percussion comes in it provides a lot of depth in the sound and slowly but surely it grows into a song with quite a massive presence. Ran is the Goddess of the sea but also Kati’s stage name.
Track 4: Terveh
Our first ever Monthly Marker and it has been a part of our playlist ever-since. Terveh is a song in an old Finnish language from the Karelian area, and it’s an old Scandinavian rite to contact and communicate with the spirits of the neighbouring forests. As far as the music goes it does have more of a “modern” feel than what you would expect of something so ancient. The hand of Christoffer Juul (Valravn, EUZEN, LAVA studios) is clear in this song. Powerful in the low end, very melodic in the vocals.
Track 5: Harpa Toner
A traditional Norwegian song, and as we may expect from the older European fairytales, death plays a rather large part in it. The song is a story about a girl gets killed by her older sister, so that the older sister can then marry the lover of the dead sister. However, the bones and hair of the young sister are used to create a harp, which then plays at the wedding and sings the truth. Musically a very layered track, with a clear and sharply defined high end and some deep dark lows, combining to a very complete song. Highly enjoyable, if you can forget the murder and body parts 😉
Track 6: Nymanen
A remake of Under Nymanen from L.E.A.F.’s earlier EP. This was my personal favourite then, and the song that made me fall madly in love with the vocal quality of Kati Ran, and so I’m happy that this song was selected for a remake. I can say that the song hasn’t changed an awful lot fortunately, we can just hear that it has matured and has become somewhat more powerful.
Track 7: Vinda
A very laid-back type of song. Slower, with a dreamy quality, it makes you want to close your eyes and just drift off. The song was written by Maria Franz (Euzen) when she was only fourteen, and indeed Maria sings this song as a duet with Kati. I don’t speak Danish, so I can’t really attest to that, but the English translation certainly does have a very poetic feel to it!
Track 8: Fylgja
The title of this song is in Old Norse and the lyrics in German, which would then make the 4th or 5th language on the album, none of which are Kati’s native tongue. If nothing else this emphasizes the international aspect of this album. The song takes the listener deep into a dream-state, with a very nice continuous rhythm and heavy reverb on Kati’s soothing vocals.
Track 9: Suurin
Suurin is another traditional rite from Finland, and the shamanistic properties of the song are evident from the start. Strong drums and a powerful chant, and the power just keeps building up during the song. Even though the song itself doesn’t reach a clear climax, I can certainly envision people reaching a level of ecstasy from this song when performed or played in the right circumstances.
Track 10: LYS
LYS starts off as a Galdr, an ancient form of song intended to conjure magic. I have been fortunate enough to have seen this song performed live on stage at Castlefest during the combined L.E.A.F./SeeD show, and it certainly felt magical! What a sense of power coming from that stage! And I will admit, even the recorded version gives a similar power, which is not often the case. From start to finish this track speaks to the primal part in my soul with the carefully crafted Galdr text and the massive power from the rhythm.
As a favourite track I would have to go with Harpa Toner this time. I love the music, the range between the highest highs and the lowest lows, and to be honest I love these kinds of older folk tales. Thank you Kati for breathing life into this one!
Overall the entire album merits taking the time to put on some headphones, or switch on a very high quality stereo when the neighbours aren’t around, and really experience it. Many of the tracks have poetical, lyrical qualities that deserve your undivided attention. I would say: Listen to the album in that way once. Then, if you don’t have all of the knowledge at hand, get on-line, dive into books, find out as much information as possible about all of the topics that this album holds. Find the parts of the Poetic ‘Edda’ that Kati used and bring their context into the experience. Find the poem “Let the light enter” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and do the same. Envision yourself a part of the Shamanistic rites. And then listen to it again several times. This album is much more than music. To be honest, while that is an amazing achievement, it is also somewhat of a curse. I don’t see LYS ever playing in my car while driving, or in my house as background music. You really want to be able to focus completely on all the layers that Kati gives you. That being said, I am ecstatic to have this album as part of my collection and I really believe that anyone who is into Nordic folk, Nordic mythology or Nordic religion should go out and buy themselves a copy!
From the dreamlike atmosphere of Irfan’s The Cave of Swimmers we now move to the deep sounds of the nordic folk of LEAF official.
This October, on the 13th to be exact, we will see the release of LYS, their latest album, and from this album we chose the amazing track Harpa Toner as Monthly Marker. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do, and if you do remember to go get the album once it is released!
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