The Pagan Music List 18: New Release Edition
The PAGAN MUSIC LIST is an attempt to create a comprehensive list of Pagan, Heathen, Esoteric, Animist, and related music that we listen to and love. We include embedded YouTube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp links when possible for each artist.
Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).
We also provide a constantly updated index of artists that we have reviewed by name and genre.
And if you are a Spotify listener, you can click on the embedded player to listen to the full updated playlist!
Collection 18: New Releases
In this special edition of the Pagan Music List, we’ll look at recent releases from bands we’ve previously reviewed.
FAUN
I, like other long-time fans of one of the best pagan music groups to ever exist, have been quite anxious about the future of the band after the retirement of the brilliant Fiona Rüggeberg from the band. Rüggeberg played all the wind instruments, including bagpipes, as well as occasional vocals, and her absence made many of us wonder whether the band would even still sound like Faun in future incarnations.
So far? I’m still not sure. Their first album after her departure, Pagan, is due out 22 April, and they’ve releasedthree singles from it thus far. One of them, Galdra, is quite good and rather haunting, and if it is indicative of their new sound than I think most will be happy. Of course, it sounds a bit like Wardruna, primarily because it features one of their singers, Lindy-Fay Hella.
The second track, just released a few weeks ago is called Baldur, and it’s honestly a bit chaotic.
And the third track, released as a live video, is Wainamoinen. The music itself is quite good in this one, but the vocals don’t feel quite right.
Still, I’ll review their newest album when it comes out, as I’m sure I’ll listen to it a lot regardless. Change is always hard at the beginning.
Wardruna
Wardruna also has a new release coming that same week, a live “audio and video release” of their album Kvitravn - First Flight of the White Raven. The first live re-release is their song Solringen:
Rúnahild
Just after I interviewed her, Rúnahild release a short EP called Sacred Feminine, which is very good. Also, she has another album coming out very soon, called Wounded Healer.
She’s released a live video recording of the title track, and it’s both gorgeous and profoundly haunting. In her introduction, she states the song is “about healing the traumas we inherit from our ancestors and transform that darkness within us into life energy.”
Mari Boine
Though she has not released a new album since she was reviewed in this list, Sami singer Mari Boine did release a new track in November 2021, which is quite beautiful. I hope it means she’ll have a new album soon.
Another excellent song of theirs is Huldra, which more of a metal influence. It’s about a Scandinavian forest creature (a Huldra or Hulder) somewhat similar to the oldest Celtic understandings of faeries (not as winged creatures but nature spirits who preceded human settlement).
Kalandra
Kalandra took a break from performance in order to work on the soundtrack for a video game, and they’ve announced they’ll be release tracks from it this year. The first very short track is quite good.