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Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).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 24

Waldkeuz, Helisir, Emian

WaldkAuZ

German Medieval/ Folk

Website https://www.wald-kauz.de/de-de/
Recommended Album: Kaiho

“Waldkauz” is the German word for a brown owl (literally a “forest owl”), and the German band bearing that name is quite good. Often compared to FAUN, their songs are explicitly “paganfolk” and quite fun.

I think their best album is the 2017 release, Mythos. Each song therein either retells European folktale or evokes a sacred place. Of that album, two songs are especially worth mentioning.

The first is “Dimna Juda,” a very old Macedonian folk song about an old crone mountain spirit. For ages, villages would offer up sacrifices (or possibly servants) to her until they decided would instead give her gold rather than life. In anger, she then kills 300 of them, using the bones of the dead to build her home. Possibly, the tale is about a much older mountain-goddess cult. The version Waldkauz sings is greatly abridged, and is in Croatian.

Also quite good is their song Mati Syra Zemlya, named for the slavic goddess of the earth (her name literally means “moist mother earth”).

Helisir

Folk/Traditional (Nordic)

Website:https://www.helisirofficial.com/ or https://helisir.bandcamp.com/

Recommended Album:Såbare

Helisir calls itself an “experimental folk” project, and appears to be primarily the work of one person, Lene Helisir. Her voice is quite enchanting, but she’s particularly known for her harp playing.

Her most popular solo song is a cover of Gjallerhorn’s “I Riden Så.”

However, she’s probably much more known for the song she did with Kati Rán, “Vinda.”

Emian

Folk/Neo-Folk (celtic)

Website: https://emian.bandcamp.com/

Recommended Album: Kymeia

EMIAN is a port-manteau of the first names of its two members: Emilio A. Cozen and Anna Cefalo, and they are one of a small handful of Italian pagan folk bands.

Around since 2011 and still active, EMIAN often plays large music fests (such as Castlefest in the Netherlands, which they played last month). Their music combines Celtic, Baltic, and Sephardic elements for a truly ethereal feeling.

Here’s their song “Hyria”, named after an ancient city mentioned in Homer’s epics:

EMIAN has also experimented with some electronic elements to with interesting results. Here’s a more recent track, “Junuae,” which is a great example of this. It’s quite reminiscent of a lot of Arabic admixtures of traditional folk songs and techno, and quite good:

The Pagan Music List 24