At the beginning of the 21st century, neofolk music was triumphing. Soon it tripped over its own feet and broke its face. Is there space on the scene for up-and-coming artists who will revive the genre? We distinguish four noteworthy projects
Author: Przemysław Murzyn
I learned about neofolk music with passion and delight in the early 2000s, but I quickly realized that it was a formula with a rather short expiry date, even despite the fact that the then most important representatives of the genre had been creating their acoustic, apocalyptic songs for several years. And it still worked, for better or worse. But how many times can you sing hymns against the modern world to the accompaniment of three cross chords and not eat your own tail?
Time confirmed my concerns. The legends have either retired (Death in June), or have radically changed their style (Current 93), or formally still exist, but haven't recorded interesting material for years (Sol Invictus). The solid second league has also crumbled to a large extent for various reasons, I am thinking of, for example, Fire+Ice, Sonne Hagal or Forseti. The uncontrolled outpouring of rune-covered guys with guitars creating one- or two-person projects, each of which sounded like a clone of the previous one, certainly didn't help either. And so, as in the case of martial industrial, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the genre tripped over its own feet and broke its face.
Has neofolk picked itself up and is proudly moving on? Not really. Of course, there are bands that - keeping all proportions in mind - we can call big, such as Rome , :Of The Wand And The Moon: or Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio , but the next generation of artists did not necessarily adapt this style to their times. I was also ready to put a cross on neofolk and try to find interesting things on the albums of these five bands, which still have something to say. Sometimes it works, after all , :Of The Wand And The Moon: seems to get better and better with each subsequent album. But cool new artists… bye. Search with a candle. However, I was determined, I grabbed this candle and dug out some interesting names that may not necessarily herald the return of the species in its full glory, but they make me think that maybe my blackness, at least for the moment, is premature. So I will take you to the four corners of the world and tell you about four great young neofolk projects that have provided me with quite a lot of pleasant moments with headphones on in the last dozen or so months.
FALGAR
The purpose of the first journey may be surprising to you, because it is difficult to include neofolk among the main exports of Puerto Rico, a country known until now for introducing Ricky Martin and that guy from "Despacito". Meanwhile, Falgar has little in common with the beach rhythms of the above-mentioned bands. This name covers Etienne Tel'uial, who comes from San Juan but now resides in the United States. In fact, in this case I am stretching the concept of this text a bit, because it is not a very young project - its beginnings date back to 2007. But the first few Falgar albums were filled with quite coarse, although not without a certain naive charm, black metal. However, in 2014, with the album "Lejanía", Etienne radically changed his musical direction, which turned out to be a bull's-eye, because his acoustic meanderings can be truly captivating. He is quite a prolific musician, releasing about one album a year.
This is not surprising, because his pieces are not characterized by any particular complexity in arrangement or performance. On the contrary, Etienne believes that there is strength in simplicity, hence this neofolk hispano ancestral (as he describes his work) is basically just an acoustic guitar, a keyboard, a male voice and two tones of reverb. Sounds like a recipe for failure? Not necessarily, in all this structural asceticism Falgar is able to contain a lot of emotions, sadness, romanticism and longing for what is long gone. It also sounds completely different from Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic neofolk, not only because of the Spanish-language lyrics, but also because of the sound of the guitar, which rightly brings to mind Iberian or Latin aesthetics in terms of melody and phrasing. And these are simple but really great songs.
Music of the pristine land
Etienne knows perfectly well how to capture the listener's heart, here emphasizing the atmosphere with a skillful keyboard stroke - no matter that it sometimes has a dungeon synth tone - and there moving him with a piece of beautiful melody on the guitar. And yes, he probably masks some imperfections with this reverb. But what does it really matter if it works? Lyrically, Falgar touches on the sacred role of women in world history, respect for ancestors and Iberian pagan traditions, although sometimes the topic of Christianity filtered through Latin culture also comes up. Although I may be adding this, because Falgar's lyrics are only in Spanish. For me, however, it is the music of an unspoilt land on which Europeans have not yet set foot. And the music of longing for a time to which there is no return. Remember this moment from the film "1492" by Ridley Scott, when a pristine jungle emerges from behind the fog before the eyes of Columbus and his crew? We all know what happened next. This is Falgar.
To check:
1. "Recuerdos del Inframundo" (best pieces: "Guerreros de Sangre" ; "Eterna es tu Voz" ).
2. "Misterios de Ilurbeda" (best pieces: "Ante tus fronteras" ; "Tiempos de Oro" ).
SUN VESSEL
We move several thousand kilometers to the southwest and land in Australia, but not to visit Douglas P., who is basking in his retirement, but to talk about his talented student, known as Sun Vessel. For many years, there was an opinion among the neofolk brotherhood that the greatest imitator of Death in June was the Danish group :Of the Wand and the Moon:. It's hard to disagree with this thesis, especially in relation to the early albums, but for some time now Kim Larsen and his companions have been trying to follow their own paths, not completely throwing off the mask of the June plague, of course, but still broadening their horizons a bit, to the benefit of the music itself, of course. Does this mean that there will be nothing left for die-hard Death in June on the contemporary neofolk scene? Well, no.
I wrote about Sun Vessel that it was Douglas's student. This term does not fully reflect the essence of the matter. Sun Vessel is like the younger brother of Death In June, staring at him like a picture and imitating all his actions. To put it bluntly, Sun Vessel is shamelessly copying from Death in June, but damn... he does it with such charm, grace and finesse that it's impossible not to like this Australian who takes us on a journey back to the glory days of the World Serpent label. I don't know, maybe they know each other, or maybe during the recording session Douglas stood behind the musician with a gun in his hand and whispered in his ear: "Play like me, or else...". Of course, I'm joking a bit here, because it's great to listen to, and not only according to the principle that the best songs are the ones we already know.
The project released two full albums: "Etched In Eternity" and "A Seed Fallen To Earth", on Gladivs Records. He also had a split with some ideologically shady band, so I'll ignore it, but these two LPs are well-arranged neofolk, with excellent flow - a must-have for fans of "But What Ends When the Symbols Shatter" or "Rose Clouds of Holocaust" . And to be completely honest, despite all the fascination with Death in June , I will not call Sun Vessel just an epigone, as over the course of these two albums you can hear progress both in terms of sound and composition diversity, because on "A Seed Fallen to Earth" there is even a pleasant post-punk element ("Creation's New Camouflage") , and in "Divine Authority" you can hear what classic neofolk would sound like played in a metal style. If this is what contemporary neofolk is supposed to sound like, then... well, it would be a bummer if we only had projects like Sun Vessel. But one such cool imitator won't hurt, and I will never despise great pieces, even at the cost of originality.
To check:
1. "Etched in Eternity" (best track: "Sacred Nobility" ).
2. "A Seed Fallen to Earth" (best songs: "Through the Copse" , "Through the Meadow" , "Creation's New Camouflage").
THIRD EYE OF THE CRONE
We return to Europe, specifically to the British Isles, where the Third Eye of the Crone group resides. And just as some of you have probably heard of Falgar or Sun Vessel, because they are not completely anonymous creators, I bet that Third Eye of the Crone is a completely new name for the vast majority of readers. I probably would have never found out about the project if the musicians hadn't written to me.
The band has released two EPs so far. The first, "From the Tomb", is still quite raw and shy, while "Through Doorways of Stone", released in August this year, is a piece of fantastic neofolk that refers to both the acoustic apocalypse of Current 93 and British psychedelic folk in the style of Donovan or early T.Rex. Or the soundtrack from The Wicker Man. Overall, this film is a good signpost regarding the atmosphere - a pagan, somewhat fairy-tale atmosphere, reminiscent of secluded villages inhabited by people living in harmony with nature.
And it's fully professional. In fact, after listening to this EP for the first time, I checked whether the project had not appeared on any of the parts of the "Dark Britannica" series published by Cold Spring, presenting the contemporary British neo/psych/acid-folk underground in a quite comprehensive form. But no, nothing slipped under my radar, it's a completely new band, although I guess the musicians behind it are not rookies. Unlike Falgar and Sun Vessel - and their rather modest set of means of expression - Third Eye of the Crone also adds a mellotron, organ, chord zither and flute to the standard neofolk package.
All this means that the delicate spirit of prog rock hovers over the album. But don't worry, these are subtle influences referring to this less embarrassing branch of the genre. And above all, there is a great vocal, both strong and delicate, which immediately jumps to the top of the genre. Light years from Tony Wakeford. And this is music that could only have been created in the British Isles. This feeling of moors and foggy meadows is inimitable. Somewhere in the distance I can also hear echoes of In Gowan Ring and Birch Book... Great performance, catchy and endearing. That was the neofolk I needed.
To check:
1. "Through Doorways of Stone" (best songs: "Dimensions of Gold", "A Lake of Unknowing").
KIELICHY
It's time to end our journey. We land in Poland, but before we go back to our homes, let's visit Wrocław, where the band Kielichy lives. Polish neofolk is not something you hear every day. There are By the Spirits and Grave of Love. A few years ago, the very patriotic Ludola was quite popular (I just checked Discogs and surprise: this project still exists). Plus a few smaller projects and ephemera that appeared only to quickly disappear.
And suddenly, out of nowhere Kielichy appears, four guys, in the photos looking like students of the Academy of Fine Arts, offering music... of which, in fact, neofolk is perhaps the main component, but one of its parts. Melancholy, misanthropy, melody - this is how they describe their work. Sure, these are sounds referring to the sounds that triumphed when Kielichy was still in diapers, but that's even better because in their performance this slightly ossified formula is filtered through youthful sensitivity and takes on a completely fresh character.
The first track on the only EP released so far, "Srebro-błękit" , is full of post-June neofolk, and the Polish lyrics are only an added value. But then it gets thicker. I don't know if I had a dream or if the musicians somewhere admitted to their fascination with Swans , but in the second track, "Bałtyk", and in the fifth, "Z Lata Nic Nie Czaso" , these swan songs actually resound to me somewhere. The third one - "Carousel" - is a festival full of people smiling broadly, revealing blackened teeth and bleeding gums. And "little headless me sits on a carrot horse." Nice. So you can keep the neofolk core and play music your own way. Kielichy is a full-fledged band, playing more and more concerts and it's probably worth supporting them. Especially since they are our countrymates.
To check:
1. KIELICHY EP (best track: hard to choose, but probably "Bałtyk" )
So it's happening. These four, in my opinion, the most interesting young phenomena on the neofolk scene do not mean that the genre has been revived in its full glory. But it turns out that there is still something to be said in this music and it is worth looking on Bandcamps, because you can dig out cool gems that may one day reach the status of Rome or :OTWATM: . There is plenty of space on stage in 2024; whoever was supposed to act, acts, whoever was supposed to fall, fell. It's time for a new wave. And I realized I didn't mention two very good North American groups, Crooked Mouth and Headstone Brigade . So more about them in the second part of the article.
