Langeland

Wolf Rune, a solo album, casts a new light on the highly personal idiom of Sinikka Langeland, kantele player and folk singer from Finnskogen, Norway’s “Finnish forest”.

The story of Mary Magdalene has been a source of comfort for many women, and research has shown that medieval ballads about Mary Magdalene are often sung by single mothers. Young women who were outcasts must have found some measure of consolation in the songs about Mary, who bore children with her father, her brother and a priest, but was cleansed of sin after doing penance in the wilderness for many years. But the possibility should not be overlooked that the songs could have been sung with a sarcastic undertone, becoming an unassailable and liberating weapon when there was no other recourse for rebelling against unjust treatment. The Mary Magdalene ballads, found in Solr, Telemark and Gudbrandsdalen, along with other folk tunes and improvisations, form the musical basis of the vocal element, where Sinikka Langeland uses the recitative form to tell the story while surrounded by works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The celebration of YULE in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. On this album the two traditions sit side by side, creating a matrix where acappella voices meet improvising instruments in a synthesis of secular and sacred.

The celebration of YULE in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. On this album the two traditions sit side by side, creating a matrix where acappella voices meet improvising instruments in a synthesis of secular and sacred.