Posts Tagged ‘Dark Folk’

VRÎMUOT present the lovingly illustrated lyric video of the balladesque song ‘Vom Traum zur Pflicht’ ("From Dream to Duty") taken from the forthcoming new album Lupus Viridis ("The Green Wolf").

The German dark folk innovators’ second full-length has been chalked up for release on December 5, 2025.

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VRÎMUOT comment: “The song ‘Vom Traum zur Pflicht’ is a musical journey through the fog-shrouded realm of my own soul”, mastermind Lupus Viridis reveals. “Only those who are willing to descend into the depths of their own existence may embark on a path of knowledge and seek the light of truth. Only those who are willing to make sacrifices may overcome the glass mountain and triumph over themselves.”

“Solve et coagula”! For death is the path to reverence … and to love.

This song is dedicated to my wife and son.

“Aus den schwarzen Schleiern heraus,
wurde ein weißer Stern geboren
und feuerrot brennt die Seele in mir!"”

“From the black veils,
a white star was born,
and the soul burns fiery red within me!”

Lupus Viridis

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LUX INTERNA reveal the music video for the lush and warm track ‘No Arrow’ as the final advance single taken from the American dark folk innovators’ forthcoming new album New Wilderness Gospel, which is chalked up for release on May 2, 2025.

LUX INTERNA comment: “In ‘No Arrow’, a tangle of voices and moments meet, intertwine, and transform each other”, guitarist and singer Joshua Levi Ian explains on behalf of the band. “Here, it’s always 4:00 am. You’re stepping out of the roadside bar as the desert winds gently stipple flickering red neon with grains of sand, while the lights from the town in the valley shimmer below like ghosts in the darkness. Or perhaps you’re waking up in the Mojave heat and lighting a cigarette in the motel bed as you watch your sleeping lover bathed in shadows and the shards of electric light that creep in through the holes in the curtains. Or maybe you’re still driving, tired but full of flame, as the car’s headlights are continuously humbled by the vastness of a great nocturnal kingdom. Either way, you feel a mix of calm resolve and wildlife surging up inside you. Your body is awake, a beautiful animal of flesh and fire. It feels like everything that came before has intentionally led you to this moment. But you know that he’s out there, waiting and watching. And there’s a cold and calculating malice in his eyes. This thought used to terrify you. You would have done anything to shake him off your trail. But not anymore. Now you’re ready. You welcome the encounter. Now he’s the one that best beware.”

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When night falls onto the sub-arctic landscapes of the Land of the Thousand Lakes, in the twilight of forest and swamps, the veils between our reality and the otherworld grow thin. It is at those times that stories such as ‘the fairy tale that never was’ leak into the lyrics and music of TENHI.

On their sixth album, Valkama, which translates as ‘harbour’ or ‘shelter’ among other meanings, the Finns originally began telling of a journey that was meant as a fairy tale in a burning, war-torn village and the crossing over dark waters to an island of the dead. The island is called Verisurma (‘the place for those who have suffered blood-death’) in Finnish folklore, where those dwell that died in war or were killed with a blade, and who shed blood on its shore forever.

Yet, during the ten years that TENHI were working on the album, our reality started to bleed into the otherworld with its own terrors and wars. Year after year, the musicians felt their story becoming more and more real until the point was reached that the band decided to change course.

Although echoes of the original work are still audible in the final music and visible in the artwork, the album now feels more harmonious and comforting, even brighter. The journey from this world to the other is more abstract and peaceful while still crossing dark waters, but after a decade TENHI have found the harbour called "Valkama".
This transition of the story but also the long journey that the band undertook to reach their sheltering harbour are both reflected in the artwork of Valkama : An old wooden boat serves as a metaphor for various meanings such as a vessel, a coffin, a womb, a shelter, change, and the journey itself.

Valkama is now streaming in full at the link below; and TENHI have added a lyric video including an English translation for each song (click image for link):

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Emma Ruth Rundle’s lauded new album Engine of Hell is stark, intimate, and unflinching. For anyone that’s endured trauma and grief, there’s a beautiful solace in hearing Rundle articulate and humanise that particular type of pain not only with her words, but with her particular mysterious language of melody and timbre. The album captures a moment where a masterful songwriter strips away all flourishes and embellishments in order to make every note and word hit with maximum impact, leaving little to hide behind.

Just off the heels of its release, Rundle has unveiled another stunning and self-directed video for Engine of Hell’s ‘The Company’. The visual was made on the Isle of Skye.

Rundle reveals, “I dreamed this visual poem about innocence of the spirit, sadness and the dark deceiver I spend my life trying to run from. Or is it a friendly entity? What does it mean? Upon waking – I acquired the equipment and made a plan to film it. I enlisted the help of my dear friend, Blake Armstrong, who helped shoot and plays part in the video as well. It was edited by Brandon Kahn. Written, directed and shot by me.”

Watch the video here:

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Rundle

Photo Credit: Cintamani Calise

Anneke van Giersbergen announced the release of her new solo album The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest last year.  Today sees the release of the second single and video of said album, called “Hurricane”.

Anneke comments on the single as follows: “For the new album I wrote a lot of songs filled with messages of love and heartache, but I also went on a more propulsive journey, with darker storytelling. The percussive opening groove of ‘Hurricane’ is maintained until a slightly ominous middle section. The track closes with heavy drums and a glorious trumpet solo.”

You can watch the video here:

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Ici d’ailleurs… IDA102 4th March 2016

James Wells

Taking only half of a well-known phrase by way of a title, The Calm Before carries an implicit connotation of incompleteness, something unfinished, abridged. While there’s nothing remotely sketchy or half-formed about the six tracks on this album, their sparse, spare and elegant folk qualities do subscribe to a certain degree of minimalism.

As Third Eye Foundation, Elliott singlehandedly redefined the parameters of drum ‘n’ bass, while his solo work is broadly categorised as dark folk. The Calm Before isn’t really so dark, and doesn’t have the same sombrenesss of, say, Drinking Songs.

The simple acoustic instrumental piece, ‘A Beginning’, which appropriately introduces the album, has a lilting, lullaby quality, which drifts into the 14-minute title track. Elliott croons gently, quietly, calmly, the melody ascends and descends. Its simplicity is its strength, and the mood is at once uplifting and wistful.

‘I Only Wanted to Give You Everything’ finds Elliott in a darker place, a delicately picked guitar line reminiscent of early Leonard Cohen providing the backdrop to his Thom Yorke-like mumblings, before shuffling beats creep in and gradually swell while widescreen strings swoop in and build to a crescendo of abject rejection as he repeats ‘but you don’t love me…’ over and over.

There’s a downtempo Latin flavour to ‘Wings & Crown’, which demonstrates almost rockist tendencies, before the final track, ‘The Allegory of the Cave’ offers some light at the end of the tunnel as soft ambient notes drift over distant beats and piano and acoustic guitar skip lightly towards hope.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/153519419

Matt Elliott – The Calm Before (teaser) from Ici D’Ailleurs… on Vimeo.

Matt Elliott - Calm Before

http://www.thirdeyefoundation.com/