The Pagan Music List 32
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Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).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 32
Sara Parkman, Unni Løvlid,Folque
Sara Parkman
Folk/Electronic
Website: https://www.saraparkman.se/
Recommended Album: Eros Agape Philia
Billed as the “perfect mix of Vikings and Berghain,” Sara Parkman’s music is an artful melange of electronic and wistful nordic folk influences.
While some of her songs are a bit too situated in Christian theology, others retain enough pagan spirit to be of interest to readers, and are anyway her most popular.
The lyrics of her song Fädur are quite simple: everyone dies, nothing is certain except death. Sung by her, however, the somber words feel also to be a kind of solace.
Björnen is quite a good song, and its lyrics tell a deeply erotic story of a woman hiding from a bear in a chapel before, suddenly, deciding to go out to meet it. The chorus translated into English leaves ambiguous whether “ride your back through the night” refers to a witch’s night flight, sex, or both.
Unni Løvlid
Folk/Traditional (Nordic)
Website: http://elen-music.com/portfolio/unni-lovlid/
Recommended Album: Rite
A highly-acclaimed folk musician for several decades in Norway, Unni Løvlid’s work is a bit between Enya and Loreena McKennit, with some Dead Can Dance thrown in.
She’s got quite a body of work, much of it more formal compositions, but both her albums Rite and Vita merit your attention first. From Rite is the song Bak Vaker Verda:
From another album, Vita, here is Den Fyrste Song:
Folque
Folk
Website: None
Recommended Album: Folque
Folque was an early Norwegian folk band very similar in style to Steeleye Span, and was active at about the same time. And just like Steeleye Span, they broke up several times, came back a few years later, broke up again, and then did another tour.
What makes their music different from others of the genre during that error was their more faithful renditions of folk music without too much attempt to add a rock element to sound more relevant.
One of their best songs was Ravnene, better known as Rabenballade or the many Celtic versions of the song “two ravens.”
A more Nordic song from that same album is the song Skjøn Jomfru (fair maiden), which tells the tale of a man whose two friends convince his bride that he has died. She then falls in love with one of the friends, and when the man learns of it all he kills himself in sorrow.