“Joy is the essence of success!”

Across their previous two albums, Heilung have used dark progressive neofolk to provide a window into Europe’s past. But on their latest, the experimental collective pay tribute to early civilisations a little further afield. Composer and throat singer Kai Uwe Faust explains how they’ve used ancient instruments, arcane scrolls and algebra to bring the mysterious Drif to life.

Hannah May Kilroy

There is a song on Heilung’s new album Drif that comes from the oldest surviving complete work of annotated music. This music was found carved into clay tablets dating back 3,400 years ago, in the Canaanite city of Ugarit, in the northern part of what is now known as Syria. “It’s the oldest song in the world,” says Heilung vocalist Kai Uwe Faust excitedly of the music that would become Nikkal. “It didn’t only have lyrics and notes, it also had plates that described how to tune a string instrument. That’s just incredible – you can’t go deeper.” Given that Heilung, completed by Danish multi-musician and producer Christopher Juul and Norwegian vocalist Maria Franz, describe their music as ‘amplified history’, such a find was like discovering gold. Formed in 2015,…

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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 134

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