Amalie Bruun has always paved her own path, challenging underground preconceptions of heavy metal ever since the release of her debut Myrkur EP in 2014. Her first two full-length studio albums, 2015’s M and 2017’s Mareridt, recast black metal in the most personal yet expansive of terms, their blending of Amalie’s Danish folk roots with tempestuous internal struggles breathing new life into a subgenre whose followers can be rigidly possessive. With the release of her new album, Folkesange, Amalie Bruun has set out to journey into the very heart of the Scandinavian culture that marked her childhood. Folkesange relinquishes black metal for a refined yet far-reaching evocation of traditional folk, combining songs ancient and new to sublimely resonant effect. After the nightmare-induced visions that wrought themselves throughout Mareridt, Folkesange offers an emotional sanctuary, a means to reconnect to something permanent and nature-aligned. It’s an awareness that’s become deeply bound to the album’s organic, regenerative spirit, from the opening track Ella’s heartbeat, frame-drum percussion and crystalline vocals that become the grounding for a rapt, richly textured awakening, to the gentle carousel of the closing Vinter, with its nostalgia-steeped connotations of seasonal, snowfall-bewitched awe. Storytelling, rites of passage, and the invocation of a continuity that passes through time and generation are all part of folk music’s tapestry, and Folkesange taps into all these currents in their most essential form. In part a purist’s approach to the genre, free from over-interpretation and fusion, the use of traditional instruments throughout, such as nyckelharpa, lyre, and mandola offer a deeper, more tactile connection to their source, an unbroken line of communication back to the past. But the album is no museum piece; it resonates in the here and now, aided by the spacious production of Heilung member and musical collaborator Christopher Juul. Cinematic yet intimate, Folkesange exists in a state of boundless reverie, bourne by string-led drones, cyclical, elegiac rhythms and Amalie’s frictionless voice, all carrier signals for deep-rooted, ancestral memories, and associations felt on an elemental level. It’s a binding of the otherworldly and the earthy that echoes the the subject matter of many of the tales themselves. Written by Amalie, Leaves Of Yggdrasil’s medieval cadences bind tragic love story and mythology, full of both fairytale wonder and deeply human foible. Tor i Helheim, its dreamily persistent rhythm redolent of both innocence and encroachment, is based on a poem from the Icelandic Eddas, relating a journey into the underworld of Hel where the sparse nature of the accompaniment becomes the medium that carries you along in its thrall. An immersive experience in its own right, but also belonging to a wider, pagan folk-based renaissance that has attracted a devoted following worldwide, Folkesange answers a need that has become ever more pressing in turbulent times. A zeroing in on a resonance that is both intrinsic and enduring, it’s a rediscovery of personal grounding, and an experience that reaches beyond culture to remind us of a shared, deeply rooted inheritance. A tuning fork that binds the personal and the universal, Folkesange is a reminder that the most transcendent experiences are those closest to home. (Words by Jonathan Selzer)

My son was born in December shortly after I purchased my copy of Folkesange. I played this song for him in the hospital on the night he was born to put him to sleep. Always takes me back…and reduces me to tears.

Playing this on repeat for my grandpa right now in the hospital. I want him to have this music with him when he passes over to the other side to join grandma. Hail!

Happy Jule and enjoy your holiday! Yule is a traditional holiday holding roots in various northern European traditions, particularly that of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples. When the days grew colder and the nights grew longer, people of ancient times would light candles and gather round fires to lure back the sun.

The worst thing about this song is that it's too damn short

Magical. Sounds like a song by Danny Elfman for an early Tim Burton's christmas movie.

I didn't mind her black metal stuff, but this is amazing. I love folk music.

It reminds me the music by Agnes Obel. What would be a masterpiece to mix this two amazing artists !

In the beginning I get Edward Scissorhands vibes

I received the word Vinter on Saturday in my meditation time and decided to Google it and ran into this music. It is absolutely Divine.

This is clearly a 10/10 album with its fascinating music and Myrcur's enchanting voice. 💎💙

Thank you for this song. It brought me peace and some warm into my heart in these quarantine days when i feel so agitated. Greetings from 🇧🇷🇧🇷

Getting high from the beauty and coziness of this. Love the raw beauty of the massive cliffs and mountains harmonizing with the etherealness of the water and mist.

Absolutely beautiful so divine it sends me tingles all over ❤❤❤

a fairytale - song ♥

pretty Burton-ish, beautiful

The Jule Cat is a monster from Icelandic folklore, a huge and vicious cat said to lurk about the snowy countryside during Christmastime and eat people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve. The Jule Cat has become associated with other figures from Icelandic folklore as the house pet of the giantess Grýla and her sons, the Jule Lads. The threat of being eaten by the Jule Cat was used by farmers as an incentive for their workers to finish processing the autumn wool before Christmas. northern European

Beautiful 🖤🔥👌😌

Jonna Jinton brought me here 💖😊

This song made me cry

This is beyond beautiful. Those melodies are out of this world.

Someone made another Ice Dance!

Eu escuto essa música todos os dias, várias vezes, e ela tem um poder de retirar todas as minhas angústias. Obrigada por essa bela música!!

Не передать словами , мало говоря , но это потрясающе 😌🙌✨🙏

One word: Peace

it feels like i heard it in some movie or looks similar

Not what I expected to hear from a Relapse release, but I certainly enjoyed it.

This is so beautiful ❤️

This music reconciles the spirit

Angels....

Amazing 💕💕

It reminds me of something I can't remember

My heart froze

Fascinante el album 10/10.

Amazing! I got gooseflesh in a good meaning.

Aww it sounds really cute ❄

Beautiful!

Your next sad Christmas movie presented by... Myrkur!

Listening to this I have many images that cross my mind. I wish I could make a video to go along with this beautiful song but I don't have the budget for it...😣 All of this album is amazingly beautiful, enchanting...I hope one day I can turn this on for my future kids to listen to...

The beginning of this song reminds me of "The Polar Express".

Isin't it a movie soundtrack? I'm almost sure i've heard it somewhere else before.

🎼🎵🎶🎶🎵❤️😌

This song would fit perfectly in a Chrono Trigger game.

Is there sheet music (with piano + voice) available for this piece? :)

Estaba buscando música nueva para mi mente, y entre mis tantas suscripciones, lo primero que encontré interesate fue este video... Me llamo la atención la imagen que tenía de fondo. Amazing

this is disneys up all over again. married life is the song name

This song it seems to me very similar with Anathema track - Closer.

This reminds me of Coraline omg

Har Agnes Obel en finger med i denne sang? smukt

The intro sounds really similar to clair de line by claude debussy

With this song i remember Liszt :)

Minds me of the intro song to final fantasy X

Why does this sound so incredibly familiar?

Reminds me a bit of Donnie Darko.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 0:43 💚🔥💃🔥 👇💟

Why does this somehow remindse of lord of the rings, the hobbit and Cinderella at the fsame time FFFFSKGSJEB

Reminds me of this Laibach song, probably because it's also in the same key: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mJlpdsl0s5jGfnk.html