The Pagan Music List 33
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Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).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 33
Folknery, Ashley Serena, Łysa Góra
Folknery
Folk/ Traditional (Slavic - Ukraine)
Website: https://folknery.bandcamp.com/
Recommended Album: Useful Things
Folknery came by their name in a rather strange fashion. While on a cycling tour through Slavic lands to gather traditional folk songs, the dead author William Faulkner (known for writing the longest sentence — 1280 workds — in any English work of literature) appeared to Volodymyr Muliar in a dream and said, “use my name for your band.”
Muliar — along with his partner Yaryna Kvitka — have been collecting and re-working traditional Slavic folk songs since 2009, and the longer they do this, the better their songs seems to become. Take the traditional song Karchata (its title isn’t really translatable into English), which has been this reviewers go-to song when caffeine in the morning isn’t enough:
From one of their older albums is another Ukrainian folk song that seems to be a fragment of a much older Slavic song whose original references are obscure. This is quite a common occurrence in Slavic music, similar to how children’s lullabies in English are fragments of often darker folk songs.
Ashley Serena
Folk
Website:https://ashleyserena.com/
Recommended Album: Hush Little World
It doesn’t seem to exist as a recognized genre yet, but there’s been an increase a type of music I’d suggest should be called, “fantasy folk.” Despite melodies and vocals similar to pagan or traditional folk, musicians in this category tend to borrow more heavily from fantasy and storybook elements, often from video games, to varying effects. Sometimes the result can be a bit campy (or, as the children these days call it, “cringe,”) reminiscent of embarrassing Wicca-esque acts (think S.J. Tucker or Omnia).
Pacific Northwest singer Ashley Serena, on the other hand, steers quite clear of those pitfalls and gives the genre a real life. For instance, here’s a song Serena performs for the Witcher III video game soundtrack:
Also, Ashley Serena does some really wonderful renditions of traditional folk songs. Her best is probably the Russian lullaby, Bayu Bayuski.
Łysa Góra
Folk/Metal (Slavic)
Website: https://lysagorazespol.pl/
Recommended Album:
Łysa Góra means “bald mountain,” and is the name used in many Slavic lands for mountains where witches were thought to hold their meetings. Often, such places were former pagan sites, including the Łysa Góra in Poland from which this band takes their name.
Łysa Góra is usually considered pagan metal, but in fact their musical styles are much more varied — even in the same album. They’re really quite talented, as well
Their song Idzie żołnierz fits with a common genre of older folk songs about the futility and absurdity of war. Its lyrics are from the point of view of a soldier who is dying. From the ground, as ravens wait for his death, he watches others fight around him, grieves for the men he had to kill, and wishes he had “followed the plow” (stayed a farmer).
Their rendition of Lipka, a traditional Polish song, is best listened to in its acoustic version. Incidentally, the song appears to be a different varient of the Nordic song Skjøn Jomfru (featured in List # 32). That song is about three friends arguing over a woman, while this one is about three brothers. The woman is to be married to an “old man” two weeks hence, and it’s left ambiguous whether one of the brothers is the old man.