Since its inception in 2017, enigmatic world music collective HEILUNG has been paving melodic paths to the past with their unique and mystifying sound. Keltentrauer, which translates to ‘Celtic Mourning’, is a spoken word piece that is done entirely in the German language. I don’t speak German, but based on how the lyrics are performed, this is the telling of a story that ends in death and grief. According to Greek philosopher Pythagoras, three is a divine number, signifying harmony, wisdom, and understanding. He also believed it to be the number of time – past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end. Purposefully or not, ‘Drif’ embodies this philosophy, putting forth a divine work of art that ties together the beginning of civilization with the modern world today. Make no mistake, HEILUNG still does not represent any modern political or religious ideology, but rather delivers a humbling reminder of where we came from. “Remember, we are all brothers. All people, beasts, tree and stone and wind, we all descend from the one great being that was always there, before people lived and named it, before the first seed sprouted.” Line-up: As instruments, items are used that may have been already available to humans in the Iron Age, such as drums, bones or spears. According to an August 2018 interview, the instruments they use consist of: [13] Is this for everyone? Absolutely not. While it does have an inherent emotive quality and leans into darkness on a regular basis, it’s not a ‘metal’ album nor does it have crossover appeal. You’re not likely to be hearing songs from Drif on the radio anytime soon. Yet, those willing to brave it and experience the story-telling of Heilung will surely find themselves invested and fascinated by the experience.

Musically spectacular, the tension generated by the songs is electric. The combinations provide such aural stimulation that it is almost indescribable. The acoustics utilised in the ancient way on ‘Nesso’ echo and resonate, allowing Maria Franz to sing directly into a resonating copper string tuned to the same note providing a haunting result. Footsteps on gravel and hay, with a male vocal underneath Maria’s voice imitates the exorcism of a worm from a horse’s leg via a traditional spell. This contrasts with the curse which is generated on ‘Buslas Bann,’ inspired by Icelandic runes of the 13th century. Both incredible, as is the finale of the 50 names of ‘Marduk’ which closes the album in creative and thrilling fashion.

For Sale on Discogs

Faust's throat singing recalls the Tibetan or Mongolian style. Juul uses a chirping whisper as vocals. Centrally important concepts, still in extensive use today, like the number Zero and all the mathematical universes deriving from it, the use of iron and the general concept of settling all originate from traditional high civilizations outside the north and still fundamentally changing our ancestor’s world. All the songs on ‘Drif’ have their own stories,” adds HEILUNG throat singer and one of the band’s three composers, Kai Uwe Faust. Each has its place and sense of belonging, with inspiration not only from Northern Europe, but from the ancient great civilizations,” explains the band. “We took the ancient surrounding advanced civilizations in account, because our ancestral Nordic civilizations did not just pop up, exist and disappear in isolation. Already in the Bronze Age, we found silk on German land that was imported already from the far, far East 3000 years ago. From the Viking age, we found beads that were brought there from present-day Syria high up in the Northern mountains. drums, including one with horse skin painted with human blood, two drums with deerskin and a drum with goatskin

This article was amended on 26 August 2022 to remove a misunderstanding of Duchesne-Guillemin’s paper in relation to Hymn to Nikkal. Of course, I'm not sure if this is considered a song or not, and I think there are different opinions about it, but I feel that it helps to drive home the gloomy elements of the album. The same could be said of Buslas Bann, which also features this incredible vocal style. There’s just something about throat singing that captures the imagination, taking the listener out of their homeland, and dropping them into a place and time that is far beyond our own.The record's closer is the mesmerizing and somewhat haunting "Marduk." A very novel composition featuring the use of bronze bowls, vocalist Kai recites the fifty names of Marduk in a quiet whisper. Just as Marduk himself, the ancient Babylonian King of the Gods was known to be complex and mysterious, Heilung encapsulate his particular disposition into this nearly nine-minute opus that is sure to move you. There are many words that can be used to describe the music that Heilung have to showcase on Drif. Words like ‘primitive’, ‘haunting’, ‘dangerous’, ‘poignant’ and even ‘epic’, yet none can truly do justice to the unique sound that grows and grows throughout Drif’s near-hour runtime. Such is the enigmatic style of the collective, Drif is as unpredictable as it is captivating and it is very, very captivating. The references to the early ages of European Civilization are also made by using texts from historical artefacts or historical poems. The languages used are varied, with German, English, Gothic, Old High German, Icelandic, Latin, Old English, Proto-Norse, Proto-Germanic, and Viking age Old Norse being used.

Hence, for Heilung, the preservation of Hymn to Nikkal is all the more important. “My wish is that people will really feel the emotion behind the ancient pieces we are reinterpreting,” she continues, “because we’re travelling through the whole spectrum of human emotion. Music is one of the tools that we can use to reconnect with ourselves, our surroundings and the people around us.” Centrally important concepts, still in extensive use today, like the number Zero and all the mathematical universes deriving from it, the use of iron and the general concept of settling all originate from traditional high civilizations outside the north and still fundamentally changing our ancestor's world.Our attempts to tame it was repeatedly fruitless and once we came to this realization, the creative flow surged forward with immense force. Asja is easily my favorite of the singles, and that is due to the throat singing of Kai Uwe Faust. The deep tones and rhythmic cadence of his vocals resonate within my chest, creating waves of primal feelings, feelings that were buried by the societal standards that have all but eradicated our connection to our own being, and to the beauty around us. Music that connects us to a primal past is something that has become more popular in the modern age, as we seek to reconnect with the Mother Earth that lives beneath our feet. None create this music better than mysterious and ethereal HEILUNG (meaning ‘healing’ in German). The trio hailing from Denmark, Norway, and Germany have undergone a meteoric rise since their inception in 2015. The band’s celestial and esoteric spirituality, coupled with their deeply conceptional and highly atmospheric music has built a bridge between the ancient world and the modern that all of us can cross. Unlike the band’s previous offerings that were centred around prehistoric northern Europe, Drif sees them explore the ancient civilisations and peoples outside northern Europe. Utilising ancient inscriptions, Roman military poems, Celtic battles and rune spells for lyrical inspiration, Drif shows HEILUNG in a form that you have never seen them before.

According to Faust, the name of the band, "Heilung", which means "healing" in German, says something about the style of the band: "The listener is supposed to be left at ease and in a relaxed state after a magical musical journey that is at times turbulent". [4] The recordings of the band are not limited to music, but also contain poems and the spoken word. Given the geographical shift the band have experienced through the creation of Drif, there is a new warmth to their music reflective of the more southerly parts of Europe and North Africa that the band have been inspired by. With clever post-production the band have revealed a new perspective on the sounds that their ancient and archaic instrument can create, building up ornately layered and intricate atmospheres. The elements that lead each song are the vocals and the percussion, whether it be dramatic and fierce or subtle and ethereal, the album has a beating heart that intensely feels the emotions of the music. In what seems like a moment of synchronicity between ancient and modern, the listener feels intrinsically bonded with Drif in that very moment, ebbing and flowing with the album’s various movements and narratives. HEILUNG’s innate ability to call upon things that were seemingly forgotten and frame them into a modern perspective connecting old and new in a finely turned process is truly remarkable, and Drif is the strongest representation of the band that we have to date. With the preface that I still haven't heard this band's debut album, only their last ( Futha), this album seems to indicate a bit of a change for Heilung.One known fact about the song is its dedication to Nikkal: the wife of the moon god worshipped in the ancient Middle East. “Most songs are created as a way to remember,” says Juul. “We’ve seen it in Iceland, where people have composed these incredibly long songs that repeat over and over again, created as a way to detail a lineage. I’m pretty sure that a song like Hymn to Nikkal would have been written down to teach adults and children about this subject: this moon goddess.” Their sound is described by themselves as “amplified history” as they aim to connect modern society with the beginnings of rudimentary humanity via their music. The music draws deeply on experimental folk, utilises runic texts from Germanic populations of the bronze and iron age and prehistoric Northern Europe. By 2019, HEILUNG launched their second full-length record, ‘Futha,’ which contrasted the masculine and battle-heavy themes of their debut with a feminine counterpart that celebrated fertility and female energy. Upon the first week of the record’s release, it graced the Billboard charts with coveted numbers, debuting at #3 on the Heatseekers Charts and #4 on the Billboard World Music Chart, placing on a total of seven Billboard charts while meeting critical-acclaim from the press on a global scale.