Hedningarna began as a Swedish instrumental folk trio in the late 80’s. Anders Stake (now Anders Norudde) played a variety of mostly homemade fiddles, flutes, and bagpipes, Hållbus Totte Mattson played lute and hurdy-gurdy, and Björn Tollin played percussion. The group took the name Hedningarna, Swedish for “The Heathens,” because a friend described their sound as having a very pagan feel to it. Their self-titled debut album came out in 1989, but shortly thereafter Hedningarna re-invented itself in two dramatic ways. First, the Swedish male musicians recruited two Finnish female singers, Sanna Kurki-Suonio and Tellu Paulasto (now Tellu Turkka). Then the band wholeheartedly and enthusiastically embraced electronics, creating a style which they describe as “folk rave.” The resulting 1992 album Kaksi! broke much new musical ground, but only hinted at the potential of the sonic experiment which they were undertaking. This potential was fulfilled with the release of Trä in 1994. The mostly traditional songs dealt with subjects like witches’ incantations, evocations of the Finnish wind god, werewolves and the women who love them, and werefoxes and the men who love them. Musically, Hedningarna plugged their fiddles, lutes, and hurdy-gurdies in and cranked the amps up to eleven, creating a sound that continues to defy categorization. Ten years later, Trä remains one of the essential albums of the 90’s in any genre. From: https://agreenmanreview.com/music-2/hedningarnas-1989-2003/
