Gjallarhorn - Suvetar

 #Gjallarhorn #world music #European folk #Finnish folk #Swedish folk #traditional #medieval #music video

This adventurous Ostrobothnian quartet formed in 1994 have created an alluring and successful style that has launched for them a thriving international career. Combining the Swedish folk music tradition of Finland with medieval ballads, ancient poems and rich, acoustic soundscapes, Gjallarhorn conjure an atmospherically charged sound fronted by Jenny Wilhelms' vocals and didgeridoo, integrating perfectly with the Norwegian hardanger fiddle, violin, mandola and percussion.
Gjallarhorn are Jenny Wilhelms on vocals, violin and hardanger fiddle; Adrian Jones on viola, mandola, vocals and kalimba; Tommy Mansikka-Aho on aho, didgeridoo, mungiga, udu and djembe; and Peter Berndalen on percussion and kaliba. Wilhelms is an outstanding vocalist, with a soft soprano that is layered throughout their album “Sjofn" to create a sense of abandon that is oddly tender and never harsh. She sings in the traditional Scandinavian style, with occasional flourishes from Indian vocal traditions. Wherever it comes from, it's phenomenal. Think Vartina without the shrill factor; after all, Wilhelms doesn't need to use her voice as percussion because she is supported by an awesome collections of percussive sounds and the drone of the didgeridoo.
Gjallarhorn takes us deep into Scandinavia, to parts with warm, subtle Swedish and Finnish accents and the epic ballads we associate with those northern parts. African and Oriental percussion instruments, and the Australian didgeridoo provide the obsessive drones. Violins, a jew's harp, a mandolin, a magnificent voice, cries resounding ad infinitum in the idea open spaces of Scandinavia; a multitude of noises, echoes, buzzing and tapping sounds, are all used to serve tradition, with ancient epics, medieval ballads, and rites. This music has a strongly modern orientation.
From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1240

Gjallarhorn - Dejelill and Lagerman

#Gjallarhorn #world music #European folk #Finnish folk #Swedish folk #traditional #medieval

Gjallarhorn is a Finnish band that performs world music with roots in the folk music of Finland and Sweden. The group was formed in 1994. The band's music echoes the ancient folk music tradition of Scandinavia with medieval ballads, minuets, prayers in runo-metric chanting and ancient Icelandic rímur epics in a modern way. The group is named after the Gjallarhorn associated with the god Heimdallr from the Norse mythology. The band hails from Ostrobothnia, a Swedish-speaking region on the west coast of Finland, one of the four regions of the historical province of Ostrobothnia and the only region in Finland outside Aland where more people speak Swedish than Finnish. The music of the band remains Swedish in character. Most of their repertoire is the acoustic folk music of these Swedish-speaking Finns, from the unique minuets and ballads that have only survived in Ostrobothnia, to the old traditional waltzes. The didgeridoo and sub-contrabass recorder offer an underlying drone, a technique shared by some other Nordic bands such as Garmarna. Also notable is their use of the hardanger fiddle and Jenny Wilhelms' kulning, a high-pitched, wordless vocal technique based on traditional Scandinavian cattle-herding calls.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjallarhorn_(band)