A short while ago, I was contacted by Natalia Zduńska of Skogsalver, who introduced themselves to me as a “cinematic dark folk project”, a description which was always going to pique my interest. Svarens Tid (which, translated from the Swedish, is Time of Answers), is an interpretation of Norse legends.
Such music has, of course, been made very popular by the incredible success of Heilung, whose music I have featured on the website a couple of times as Video of the Week. However, the surprise to me was that this band hail from Poland, so the mysterious contact about Norse folklore deepened.
This is their debut album, and amongst the instruments used are deer antlers, bones, and branches.
So, let me give you a flavour of how this outfit interpret the tales by embedding the official release videos. The first single is Fimbulvintern. The old Norse word, Fimbulvetr means awful, mighty winter and is the immediate prelude to Ragnarök, the last great cleansing battle. Vibrant, alive, with thumping traditional skins and a wonderful bassline, there are very decent effects amongst the more traditional noises, but what it all brings, I think you will agree, is a real sense of the dramatic, with the voices, including some powerful growls at times, telling their tale in the fashion of sages entertaining their audience in days of yore. This is at the heart of a very decent folk album, a mix of the old and the new in terms of instruments and telling a tale with a passion which would have been recognised many years ago in the cold winter climes.
The second single is Midgårdsormen, the Midgard Serpent, and there has been a Marvel Comics adaptation of this. Once again, immediately, you are impressed by the bass guitar of Zduńska. The percussion of Patrycja Wojkowska tells a story in its own right, but that would be naught without the deceptively delicate voice of Jakub Janicki. All the while, we get some more very clever and evocative orchestration and effects, especially the harp at the close, creating what I can only describe as a classical symphonic ancient folk tale, and very good it is, too, music for those of you who love that fusion of classical, pastoral, and edgier rock music.
The third single is Spådom, which is about prophesy, a key facet of human behaviour from ancient times, and very much with us today. Gorgeous wind and string effects start us off, before those crunching drums take flight again underpinning keys which are slightly reminiscent of Vangelis in his pomp. I do like the differing tones here, withdrawn to expansive, and the vocals are interesting, telling a story of dramatic predictions, potential conflict and, I think, ultimate death. The video is gorgeous, perfectly evoking the landscape these remarkable people were fashioned by.
The fourth video is the name of the band itself, which closes the album, and you can, incidentally, listen to it in its entirety at the Bandcamp page https://skogsalver.bandcamp.com/album/svarens-tid This is another remarkable video, and the sound fills your head, with those traditional instruments rattling in your mind against some beautiful orchestration, the voice then urgent without overdramatising as you might hear on many a death metal band track. One of the best pieces of music I have heard in 2023, brilliantly performed and leaving an enduring mark on the senses. I only wish it could have been longer.
The above videos do, I believe, give you a very clear sense of what to expect from this album, although I do think it needs to be experienced as a whole work start to finish. As the band themselves state, an immersive experience. The title track which opens acts as an overture to what follows, drawing you in with string orchestration and swirling percussion set against voices which give notice as to what to expect.
Vanadis is a name for Freya, the goddess of love, beauty, sex, but also war, and this track perfectly provides the sense of all of them. Of course, all religions carry with them a sense of the mysterious, of events, deities, and outcomes beyond the ken of our ordinary lives, and this, perhaps better than all of them, puts this across and it is a very good progressive folk rock track, the final segment racing along and filling the listener with sound.
Berserker – a warrior who fought in a trance-like state of fury. This is a piece which is psychedelic in its core, but again adapted to fit with the older narrative, and the vocal effects are wonderful, rising to the true level of fighting lunacy at the close.
Huginn og (and) Muninn are a pair of ravens, a bird always associated with the mystical and spiritual side of northern peoples, in this case the birds accompanied Odin on his travels whispering what they saw far ahead (Orwell adapted this tale in Animal Farm, the birds bringing the animals news of Jones’ planning and plotting in the town to which he had been exiled). The strings and rattling drums play out the journey, whilst the gorgeous woodwind sings their gossip. Close your eyes, and you imagine the convoy of travelling warriors on horseback telling the tales of what the ravens foretold ahead.
Yggdrasil is a sacred tree, another common aspect to ancient and middle ages mythology in Northern Europe, and something Christianity was never able to wipe out completely, especially in Ireland. It is immense and central to all life around it, and that sense of power is very well portrayed in this short piece in which I envisage costumed mortals dancing and gyrating around an earthbound imitation of the great tree. The bass guitar melody is quite beautiful.
Svarens Tid is a relatively short album at some thirty-three minutes in length. It does, though, suck you into its world, and Skogsalver are a band worthy of your attention. They have released an album demanding respect and absolutely stand up in their own right in this particular branch of ethnic folk music.