01	The Dawning						04:54
	02	Seeker Divine						04:27
	03	Volven						03:38
	04	Alva						04:09
	05	Solstice Past						05:51
	06	On Wings Of Rapture						03:05
	07	Wake Skadi						04:30
	08	Dreaming Wild White Horses						03:54
	09	Your World In My Eyes						08:14
	10	On Wings Of Rapture (Vision Of Skuld)						04:08
	11	Wake Skadi						05:02
	12	Urd- That Which Was						04:52
	13	The Falcon Flies (Ulver Juxtaposition Remix)						03:18

Hagalaz Runedance-Volven
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Review of Hagalaz Runedance: Volven, Well of Urd/Hammerheart Records


Volven, the sophomore offering of the Norwegian entity, Hagalaz Runedance, is an album rich in music. It is not the mere noise of many assorted bands, but that purity that is found in the very substance of life itself. From the majestic opener, "The Dawning," to the passionate "Your World through My Eyes," this is one CD that not only lived up to the expectations from their debut, "The Winds that Sang of Midgard's Fate," but exceeded them completely.

Hagalaz Runedance is the project of Andrea Nebel Haugen, a singer known for her previous work with the bands Aghast and Cradle of Filth. Dedicated to the Old Norse religion of Asatru, Hagalaz Runedance is basically Asatru tribal folk music. The songs are a mixture of mesmerizing chants, passionate singing, pounding war drums, lyres, harps, guitar, flutes, and just a touch of synthesizer, making a very textured but at the same time simplistic sound.

The CD begins with the 'instrumental' song, "The Dawning." It is 'instrumental' in the fact that there are no lyrics, only syllabic chants. Combined with fierce, driving rhythms on the war drums, the vocals are a hypnotic introduction to shamanistic journeying, taking the listener to new places. The vocal harmonies are superb, and combine with the strykelyre and hurdy-gurdy in an exquisite fashion.

Following is the song "Seeker Divine," a tribute to the God Odin. Beginning with a Nordic bag pipe solo, the song continues the driving pace set by "The Dawning." Mixing standard verse chorus patterns with a chanted bridge similar to "The Dawning," the song takes Andrea Nebel Haugen's work to new heights.

"Volven," the title track, details the rituals of Asatru female priestesses, the Volven, as they undertake a shamanistic journey. The song starts slow, and builds to frenzy that outdoes the previous two tracks before it drops back down to repeat the beginning sections, slow and without percussion, yet maintaining the passionate energy that had come before.

The next song is a complete change of pace, dropping down to a flute driven ballad called "Alva." One of the most beautiful songs on the album, "Alva" is a song about Andrea Nebel Haugen's daughter Alva, a name meaning she elf in Old Norse. The song is mostly voice, flute, and guitar, with light percussion in the background. It is a very happy song, almost like a lullaby, that still has the passion and intensity of the previous three songs.

"Solstice Past" is the fifth song and continues the progression of the album into a slower mood. The song talks about the passage of time throughout the summer into the winter. There is no percussion on the song. Instead, the backing vocals, guitars, and recorder come into the foreground.

"On Wings of Rapture" is a return to the up-tempo, percussion driven sound of the first songs, although not quite as intense. This is a peculiar song, without a clear meaning to the lyrics, other than veiled references to the rape of nature by men.

The tempo goes one set further with "Wake Skadi," a tribute to Andrea Nebel Haugen's patroness, the Goddess of the hunt and winter, Skadi. Mixing recorder with pulsating rhythm, the song acts both as a call to war and as a prayer to Skadi, with both a spiritual vibe and a militant one, found in the line, "Wake Skadi, light the flames of courage, wake your sisters will to fight."

Following is the song "Dreaming Wild White Horses." The tempo comes down on this song, and the synthesizers take the front of the music. This song emphasizes Andrea Nebel Haugen's love of nature, and the Asatru view of nature as a having a symbiotic relationship with mankind. It is very beautiful and meaningful at the same time.

"Your World in My Eyes" is the penultimate song on Volven. It is a very slow ballad with minimal percussion, which at times resembling a heart beat, a fair bit of recorder and synthesizer, and an emphasis on the vocals. It is a very sad song, yet is so intensely passionate that it is hard not to love. Andrea sings her heart out about the state of the world, society, the negative effects of a certain monotheistic desert religion, and the lack of caring in the world. While it is almost 10 minutes long, the length does not matter to the listener, and the raw anguish in Andrea Nebel Haugen's voice makes the length more than worth it. At times it is almost too much to bear, as her voice pierces even the most icy of hearts.

The final song on the album is a dance remix of "On Wings of Rapture." This is the one real problem with the album. After the crushing beauty of "Your World through My Eyes," to be bombarded by techno is almost an insult. Fortunately it is not a long version. It seems odd that such a thing would be included on an otherwise brilliant folk album.

All in all, this is one of the best albums in recent years. It is neither a technical or theory driven album, nor a sophisticated album by classical standards. At times, there could be more development in the song form, as the songs tend to be strophic in nature. However, the raw passion and energy in the recordings completely overwhelms these minute details. The sheer emotion in Andrea Nebel Haugen's voice is almost too much at times, cutting right through to the heart of the listener. If there ever was something that truly fit the term music, this is it. Indeed, this album is not for those who have weak constitutions, as I had to stop and take a breather after four songs, on my first listening, the aural experience was so spiritually intense.

www.mp3.com/edgraham


Interview with Andrea Nebel Haugen of Hagalaz Runedance
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As many people know, Hagalaz Runedance is the musical project of Andrea Nebel Haugen, formerly of Aghast. Combining pulsating percussion with heartfelt chants, inspired melodies with haunting atmospheres, Hagalaz Runedance has forged a reputation as the worlds premiere Asatru Folk Music project. I recently interviewed Andrea about the forthcoming album, Frigga's Web, and many other intersting things.

Frigga's Web presents the next step forward from the magnificent sophomore offering, Volven, dealing with even more intense matters. Acording to Andrea:

"Frigga's Web is yet another journey through time, another step higher, another step deeper to my world, where past and present, dreams and reality meet. Focusing greatly on the web of life, the mysteries of birth, death, afterlife and the connection between the goddesses Hel and Frigga. I think the music is even more unique and advanced than Volven. A natural development of course, I have become much more professional, my vocals have become more powerful over the years, and I have been working with very good folk musicians. I have used Bagpipes, Bombarde, Colascione, Flutes, Harp, Lute, Lyre, Naglharpa, Hurdy Gurdy and Vihuela for this recording."

The instrumentation continues to expand, with authentic folk instruments. Except bone flute, mentioned briefly on Volven.

"I never 'promised' any bone flute, I don't 'promise' anything to the public. I said that I hope to try using a bone flute on the next recording:Well, as it happened actually, the folk musician with all the bag-pipes, lyre, flutes etc, also had a bone flute, but he forgot to bring it to the studio (he lives a nine hour car drive away):so, strangely enough, this was the second time we "forgot" to use the bone flute on a recording."

Frigga's Web includes a redone version of the beautiful song "The Home I Will Never See," from Hagalaz Runedance's debut, "The Winds That Sang of Midgard's Fate."

"I always play "The Home that I will never see" live, and the live version is so much more advanced and beautiful. So I thought I must record this song again and the new arrangement now turned out to be awesome, with Hurdy Gurdy, Arabian Drum and much more powerful vocals."

Lyrically, Andrea's work has gotten more personal and expressive over the past few years. When reading the lyrics to the new album, the song "Where the Lonely souls go" struck a chord with me. When I asked about it, I got more than just an answer to the song, but a look at Andrea's life and philosophy, which shows up in her work more than I had imagined.

" Well, like I said, te whole album is kind of questioning life and death. I have experienced a few deaths in 2000 and losses in 2001, changes, depressions, lost loves:So I just had this thoughts that we all are basically alone in the end, in death we are alone and I guess our last journey we take alone. Will we remain alone after that? I think in some way, deep down we all feel alone:not that it stops me from having a great time with my friends and loves ones, I have many people around me that care a lot about me and think like me, but in some moments of sadness, noone can help you out of your feeling of loneliness:But again this song is personal, a personal feeling."

As a musician myself, I was curious how Andrea composes the music for Hagalaz Runedance. Unlike many composers I know, she has no set method.

"Well, I just sing and the melodies come into my head, anywhere, while I drive the car, sit on the buss, ride, go for a walk etc. The melodies have a feeling to it, so I find a concept to it. Or sometimes I have a concept, a lyric and try to find a melody to it that fits. Other times I drum a rhythm and find a song melody to it. Other times I play the recorder and find a melody I want to use and than I build the rest of the song to it. I often hear the music in my head with arrangement, so it always is easy to find the right instruments and arrangement to the songs. I also dream music sometimes and wake up all panicky trying to find the Dictaphone before I forget the nice melody ( which usually happens)."

Even the vast instrumentation she uses is not a problem in the arrangements of the songs.

":The only problem is that a lot of ancient and medieval instruments have their own tone scale, which means they sound out of tune when you play them together with the synth and many instruments also go in few tones, for example the Swedish bag-pipe only goes in E or A, so we have to arrange the instruments that go together, that sound good together and most of all that fit to my vocals, because I usually want the instruments to adjust to the tone my voice falls in naturally when I sing alone:"

In discussing the instrumentation, I was quite surprized to learn what the battle drums used on songs like "The Dawning" and "Seeker Divine" were.

":they are only ordinary Tom Drums and Bass Drums. In addition I use shamanic drums, bodran and hand drums."

For anyone like myself who has followed Hagalaz Runedance from the first album, there is a distinct evolution over the years, evidence of hard work and growth, plus a little divine inspiration (at least in my opinion.)

":it certainly was a natural improvement. I worked hard on the arrangements, tried to find a musician who owns and plays old Nordic instruments, which really is not easy to find, and I worked with my voice. Plus I gained technical experiences, insight in music making etc. With the first album I merely tried to put my Pagan concept into music. I only had my visions and feelings, my lyrics and melodies and not much experience in music making or singing, so I think the feeling and atmosphere of the music is certainly beautiful and real on "The winds:", but my vocals stink! But this was the best I could do at the time. Over the last years I have become a "real" musician and so it has become much easier to express my visions with music."

One of the great things about Hagalaz Runedance is that they have a distinct sound, mixing the tribal drumming with ambient folk music. As for Andrea's inspiration for this musical adventure:

"Many bands inspired me, music that I remember happenings by, music that gave me feelings and thoughts I will never forget, music that inspired my world-view and music that inspired my own musical ideas. Music that inspired my musical ideas is Kate Bush, Hedningarna, folk and medieval songs, Clannad, Dead Can Dance and their kind. Bands that personally inspired my ideas are Sol Invictus, Death In June, Coil, Current 93:and other bands would be New Model Army, Sisters, Killing Joke, Toyah, the Cure, Siouxie, Lena Lovich, Depeche Mode:a few songs from Accept, Warlock:and many more:."

The songs performed by Hagalaz Runedance often tell epic stories of times long ago, like"The Oath He Swore One Midwinter's Day" or "A Tale of Fate." This is often a key part of Andrea's song writing.

"Well all my songs are personal feelings or visions, or experiences or views:it just comes to be like it comes to be. Some songs are "self-made myth-inspired" tales. The song 'Frigga's Web' from the new album is a story again, with hidden symbolism (which I explain in the album booklet)."

On the subject of storied songs, one of my favorite tracks, "The Oath He Swore One Midwinter's Day" came up in conversation. When asked about the origin of the song, Andrea discussed the current situation of today's Pagans in an non-Pagan society.

":actually today's young Pagans, who struggle with the ignorant society around them. The story is about a young warrior in ancient Europe who lost his family to the Christians, that came and burned down pagan villages, and his rage, but he had no chance. I know that there are individuals over the whole world, who seek to understand the wisdom of their pagan ancestors and the song is kind of a call to all those individuals. Don't give up. More and more people are becoming aware of ancient wisdom and the natural awareness."

And for those who don't speak German, the meaning behind "Das Fest Der Wintersonne" from "The Winds:"

"It's about Yule, the festival the Christians stole from the North European Pagans and called it Christmas. It is the celebration of the return of the sun and the feast for the people during the deepest nights of the year."

Despite the focus on old instruments and song writing, there is still a wee bit of experimenting in the studio with electronics, especially the remix of the song Dragonfly on the Volven album. Oddly enough, that bonus track was test done in the studio, but rounded off the Volven album,

"Well, the studio technician, who is a friend of mine, and who also is a very good musician, just remixed the song to test his new PC program...! I thought the result was really cool and I wanted to use it. So we thought ok we use it as a bonus track. I somehow think it fits as the last song after the so depressing "Your World in my Eyes", because I usually have the attitude 'there is so much pain in the world and the organised religions have destroyed so much and caused so much misery and all the disrespect people have for nature and animals, it's a shitty world, but hey lets make it better, the future is ours with more awareness and respect for Mother Earth'. The remix is thus called Vision of Skuld (Skuld is the third Norn, the goddess who represents the future)."

In addition to music, Andrea has published a number of papers, articles, pamphlets, and this past year, a book, "The Ancient Fires of Midgard." One of the big subjects mentioned is the forced conversion of the Native Pagan cultures to christianity, and the imposed manner of thinking in duality, in a good vs. evil mentality. Yet there has been a break away from this in recent years, with the growing acceptance of Paganism, and a decline in christianity, particularly among youth. (This may not be as evident in Europe, but over here in America the extremist brand of fundamentalist christianity appears to have started to lose a bit of its grip, particularly after September 11th, when Jerry Falwell blamed the terrorist attack on Pagans, Lesbians, and people who had abortions, and was almost laughed out of the country, or told by his fellow right wing christians to stop being foolish.)

":I think over the last years there have been great changes. People have become more aware of nature, alternative medicines, wild life, indigenous tribes, ancient traditions, self-awareness etc. For example 10 years ago I experienced quite much discrimination for who I am and what I look like. Today I can freely tell people that I am Asatru, a Pagan, a witch, a Viking re-enactment fighter:people think it's interesting. I can go to the swimming pool with my daughter and hardly get any strange looks because of my many tattoos. That definitely is an improvement! :There is still great fanaticism going on of course and America is quite a good example of that. The 11th September incident became a religious issue. Moslems against Christians, and Anti-abortionists, fanatic Christians burning Harry Potter books (which are excellent), its all shocking to hear that there are people like that."

One question I had to ask, and my drummer Camazots will want to know this:Is there much connection between Hagalaz Runedance and the Black Metal underground, aside from the use of Trym as a percussionist, and your friendship with Samoth of Emperor?

"No, there is no connection. Several guys from the Black Metal scene are friends of mine, Satyr, the Limbonic Art guys:Kris from Ulver etc:but we are not usually socialising, my crowd is more the Asatru, Pagan, Viking crowd and the alternative music scene."

The future of Hagalaz Runedance, and the music of Andrea Nebel Haugen? Andrea has a new project called Irlicht. Asked what that will entail, Andrea replied:

":I don't know yet, but definitely more hmm.."tribal":"

And in terms of touring the States and other live performances:

"Well I am waiting for an invitation:?! We play on several European festivals in the summer: For this year. play the festivals, perform at the Viking markets and the medieval markets again (I am with a sword fighting group), make more music..and a lot of personal projects:

Hmm, consider this an invite. America needs Hagalaz Runedance over here. Man, I know a bunch of people who'd quit their jobs to follow the group around on tour. But that's beside the point. In closing, the Penny Dreadful Question:What is Music?

":Hmm:music is the way to get feelings and atmospheres across and/or to receive it:hard to explain. Music can create powerful feelings, music connects people. As a magician, my own music is magic to me, a magical ritual, an energy that I try to bring across to the people that listen to it. I am thus also very receptive to music; I could not live without music:"

Hagalaz Runedance: Frigga's Web should be released in Mid April on Hammerheart Records. Go to go.to/hagalaz-runedance for lyrics and other details on the new album.

www.mp3.com/edgraham


Hagalaz' Runedance это создание Andrea Nebel Haugen. В своей музыке, лирике и писательской деятельности она изучает духовные ценности древней Северной Европы, занимается поиском забытой мудрости и знаний своих языческих предков.

Hagalaz' Runedance в особенности интересуется загадками женщин Севера, их положением в языческих культурах. Андреа сама практикует магию прародительниц ее народа. Hagalaz, по ее словам, это руна, открывающая спрятанные двери во внутренний мир и другие миры. Hagalaz представляет таинственную сторону женской сущности. Таким образом, для Андреа, Hagalaz' Runedance символизирует танец в Междумирье.

В 1996 Hagalaz' Runedance выпустили сингл "When The Trees Were Silenced", за которым в 1998 году последовал полный альбом "The Winds That Sang Of Midgard's Fate". Через год вышел мини-CD "Urd - That Which Was". Весна 2000 ознаменовала выход альбома "Volven", последнего и лучшего на сегодня произведения Андреа. Самый сильный, самый музыкальный, самый языческий альбом. "Volven" вызвал невероятно положительные отзывы в альтернативной музыкальной критике.

Музыку Hagalaz' Runedance можно определить как "Ambient Folk", а то и просто языческий фолк. Стиль их совершенно уникален и индивидуален. Используются скандинавские и кельтские инструменты, ритуальные барабаны и синтезаторы. Андреа работает вместе с большим количеством музыкантов с альтернативной, средневековой и фольклорной музыкальной сцены, экспериментируя с живыми инструментами, синтезированными звуками и своим голосом. Эта музыка вызывает атмосферу, погружающую слушателя в давно забытые времена. Лирика взывает к духу природы, в ней Андреа выражает свой взгляд на мир. Многие песни являются плодом собственных магических экспериментов, описывают видения пришедшие к ней во снах и при входе в северный шаманский транс Seidr ( о том что это такое смотрите - http://home.no.net/hagalaz/seidr.htm )

Andrea жила в Англии, но в 1994 отправилась на родину викингов, уже сделав себе имя на музыкальной сцене в проекте Aghast (она супруга Ihsahn из Emperor и прежде входила в дуэт Aghast с Tania Stein ). Значение традиций и древних знаний, искаженных и почти задушенных христианами, по ее мнению неоценимо. Ее идеи, высказанные в многочисленных интервью, вызывали большой интерес на музыкальной альтернативной сцене, и спустя год она написала два буклета "Horde Of Hagalaz" о северной мифологии, магическом искусстве, языческих взглядах на жизнь. Многие ее письма также были напечатаны в самых больших норвежских журналах. А в 2000 году была опубликована книга "The Ancient Fires Of Midgard" ( с частью ее можно ознакомиться на официальном сайте группы ). В ней рассказывается о северной мифологии, языческом образе жизни, загадках природы, древних традициях, магии мудрых женщин племен севера и т.д.

Хотя Hagalaz' Runedance посвящен в основном скандинавским и кельтским традициям, Андреа надеется, что ее музыка заставит любого слушателя с открытым разумом и сердцем обратится к своим корням, к традициям своих древних предков.

Andrea Nebel Haugen является членом Норвежского магического общества Asatru. Она участвует в магических встречах и практикуется с оружием в исторических викингских боевых группах. В данный момент Андреа работает над новым альбомом, и собирается опубликовать новую книгу.

Рунный танец продолжается :

The circle's closing we hear the chants
Magic rythms seducing us to dance
Eyes are closing, what will they see?
Lost in the search of ancient dreams and ages yet to come

DISCOGRAPHY
When The Trees Were Silenced 7" EP (Elfenblut) (Тексты песен)
The Winds That Sang of Midgards Fate CD (Elfenblut)
Urd - That Which Was MCD 1999
Volven CD 2000 ( Тексты песен)

Здесь можно ознакомится с частью книги "The Ancient Fires Of Midgard" - "Northern Traditions And The Natural Lore" http://home.no.net/hagalaz/tradition.htm

А здесь с работой "Myths, Gods and Values of the Germanic Pagans" ( фрагмент "Horde of Hagalaz" ) http://home.no.net/hagalaz/myths.htm



При подготовке статьи использовались материалы официального сайта http://go.to/hagalaz-runedance и сайта www.hammerheart.com.