Hedningarna is the eponymous debut album by the Swedish band Hedningarna. It was released in 1989, when Hedningarna was still a group with three members. Unlike the other albums, the debut does not include amplified instruments and rhythm loops and is played entirely with acoustic instrumentation.
Using various instruments, such as hurdy-gurdies, moraharpas, bagpipes and fiddles, the album proves Hedningarnas' ability to mix old and new styles, and the album honors the old Scandinavian musical traditions, while managing to combine these with more modern sounds.
The album was later released on the NorthSide label.
Track listing
All song written by Anders Stake, except where noted.
Polska After Pelle Fors – 3:30 (trad.)
Förtvivlans Polska/Desperation Polska – 2:10
Häxpolskan/The Witch Polska – 2:23
Skavlåten/The Chafing Tune – 3:02
Ölbackens Polska – 4:05
Särna Gamla Brudmarsch/Old Särna Wedding March – 3:51 (trad.)
Medieval metal is a subgenre of folk metal that blends heavy metal music with medieval folk music. Medieval metal is mostly restricted to Germany where it is known as Mittelalter-Metal or Mittelalter-Rock. The genre emerged from the middle of the 1990s with contributions from Subway to Sally, In Extremo and Schandmaul. The style is characterised by the prominent use of a wide variety of traditional folk and medieval instruments.
The hurdy-gurdy is a mechanical string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents—small wedges, typically made of wood—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible.
Swedish bagpipes are a variety of bagpipes from Sweden. The term itself generically translates to "bagpipes" in Swedish, but is used in English to describe the specifically Swedish bagpipe from the Dalarna region.
Garmarna is a Swedish folk rock band. Their songs are mainly old Scandinavian ballads.
A nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish musical instrument. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to change the pitch of the string.
In Extremo is a German Medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with Medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments. Versions of well-known traditional/Medieval ballads make up the main part of their repertoire, but the band has written an increasing share of original material in recent years. Their own material is written in German, whilst the traditional songs and cover songs are in a variety of languages.
Hedningarna is a Swedish, and for some years partly Finnish, folk music band that mixes electronics and rock with elements from old Scandinavian folk music. Their music features Yoik or juoiggus, a traditional Sami form of song.
Anders Norudde is a Swedish folk musician, multi-instrumentalist, and luthier.
Gabriel Yacoub is a French musician, songwriter and visual artist.
Traditional Nordic dance music is a type of traditional music or folk music that once was common in the mainland part of the Nordic countries — Scandinavia plus Finland. The person who plays this kind of music might be called speleman (Swedish/Norwegian), spelman (Swedish), spel(l)emann (Norwegian), pelimanni (Finnish) or spillemand (Danish). Finnish traditional dance music is often called pelimanni music in English, while there does not seem to exist a similar, widespread term for the corresponding music from the other countries. It is often more meaningful to distinguish between the traditional dance music from different regions than between music from the countries as such. Some concepts in the field can be defined as Norwegian or Finnish, but most are either common to all four countries or local. Besides the dance music tradition, all countries also have other traditions of folk music that are not shared to a similar extent.
La Musgaña is a Spanish folk music ensemble, founded in 1986 by Enrique Almendros, José María Climent and Rafa Martin. The band incorporates various instruments such as the dulcimer, fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, flutes, guitar and bass, and performs traditional music from the Iberian peninsula, mostly from the Spanish regions of Castile, Zamora, Leon, Extremadura and La Mancha. La Musgaña means "water-rat" in Spanish.
Blowzabella is an English band who play bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and an array of acoustic instruments to produce a driving, drone-based sound influenced by British and European traditional dance music. Many of their tunes have become standards in the modern folk repertoire.
Spirit is the first full-length album by the Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie. It was released on 1 June 2006 by Fear Dark Records and re-released by Twilight Records in 2007.
Faun is a German band that was formed in 1998 and plays pagan folk, darkwave, and medieval music. The originality of their music style is that it falls back to "old" instruments, and the singing is always the center of attention. The vocals are performed in a variety of languages, including German, English, Latin, Greek, and Scandinavian languages. Their instruments include Celtic harp, Swedish nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, cittern, flutes, and many others.
The following recordings and films feature music played on the hurdy-gurdy.
Hållbus Totte Mattson is a multi-instrumentalist folk musician from Dalarna, Sweden. Mattson's instruments include the lute, baroque lute, mandora, bass mandora, hummel, classical guitar, baroque guitar Mora-oud, accordion, Swedish dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy and vocals.
Welcome Here Kind Stranger is a 1978 album by Paul Brady. After leaving The Johnstons, Brady toured with Planxty until they disbanded in 1975, and recorded a duo album with Andy Irvine in 1976.
Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion is the third full-length album by the Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie. It was released on April 17, 2009 through Nuclear Blast. Contrary to their previous works, this album is almost entirely acoustic. The vocals are primarily handled by hurdy-gurdy player Anna Murphy. The album cover represents Cernunnos, a Celtic deity of nature. The lyrics are partly based on Gaulish inscriptions, e.g. "A Girl's Oath" uses the text of the Larzac tablet, and "Dessumiis Luge" that of the Chamalières tablet.
Between the Jigs and the Reels: A Retrospective is a two-disc anthology by the Irish folk band Planxty. It includes a 17-track CD and a 36-track DVD with over two hours of previously unreleased footage (1972–1982) from RTÉ archives.
Förbundet is the seventh studio album by the Swedish folk rock band Garmarna. Released in 2020, it is their first album on the Season of Mist label. Unlike the previous album 6 and similar to albums before that, Förbundet is again dominated by traditional instruments, melodies and lyrics, although there are still numerous electronic influences. These were added in cooperation with Christopher Juul of Heilung who also produced the album. Most tracks tell sinister folklore stories but the album includes two original titles written entirely by Garmarna. Anders Norudde of Hedningarna, Maria Franz of Heilung and Swedish folk singer Ulf Gruvberg appear as guest musicians.
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