The Pagan Music List 10: Angelo Brandaurdi, Bjork, Kalandra
Originally published at Another World, the Gods&Radicals Press Supporters’ Journal. Get early and exclusive essays and audio, as well as discounts on purchases, free downloads, and free course enrollment by becoming a supporting member.
The PAGAN MUSIC LIST is an attempt to create a comprehensive list of Pagan, Heathen, Esoteric, Animist, and related music that we listen to and love. We include embedded YouTube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp links when possible for each artist.
Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).
We also provide a constantly updated index of artists that we have reviewed by name and genre.
And if you are a Spotify listener, you can click on the embedded player to listen to the full updated playlist!
Collection 10: Angelo Brandaurdi, Bjork, Kalandra
Angelo Brandaurdi
Folk Rock, Medieval, Pop
Recommended Albums:
Artist Website: http://www.angelobranduardi.it/
It’s rare for a pagan or medieval musical act to become popular to a mainstream audience in the English speaking world, but in France, Spain, and Italy, many such acts have had songs with extensive radio play.
Italian Angelo Brandaurdi is one of those acts, and he’s been performing—and pulling in large audiences—continuously for the last five decades.
Angelos Bradaurdi uses both modern rock instruments as well as medieval and traditional instruments seamlessly in his songs, and his lyrics draw extensively from druidic, pagan, and medieval esoteric sources.
One such song is Alla fiera dell'est, a medieval German children’s song made popular by its later adaptation and inclusion in a Jewish Passover songbook (as the song Chad Gadya), pointing to the rich cultural cross-over which happened in Europe across religious lines. Both songs are “cumulative songs,” similar to the English children’s rhyme “the woman who swallowed a fly.”
Alla fiera dell'est, per due soldi, un topolino mio padre comprò
E venne il gatto, che si mangiò il topo, che al mercato mio padre comprò
Alla fiera dell'est, per due soldi, un topolino mio padre comprò
E venne il cane, che morse il gatto, che si mangiò il topo
Che al mercato mio padre comprò
At the eastern fair, for two pennies, my father bought a mouse
And the cat came and ate the mouse, which my father bought at the market
At the eastern fair, for two pennies, my father bought a mouse
And the dog came, bit the cat, ate the mouse
Which my father bought at the market
His most popular song, which was listed on pop charts throughout Europe soon after its release, is La Pulce D’Acqua (the water flea), and recalls the indigenous American belief that the water flea would steal the shadow of anyone who callously disregards the balance of nature.
È la pulce d'acqua che l'ombra ti rubò
E tu ora sei malato
E la mosca d'autunno che hai schiacciato
Non ti perdonerà
Sull'acqua del ruscello forse tu
Troppo ti sei chinato
Tu chiami la tua ombra, ma
Lei non ritornerà
It is the water flea that stole your shadow
And you are sick now
The autumn fly you crushed
Will not forgive you
On the water of the stream maybe you
You've bent too far down
You call your shadow, but
It will not return
BjÖRK
Electronic, Pop
Recommended Album: Vespertine
Artist Website: https://bjork.com/#/news
Björk needs absolutely no introduction for most people. The most globally popular musician not only to have come out of Iceland but possibly also out of Europe, Björk.
In addition, most pagan readers who’ve listened to her need no explanation as to why she is included in this list. In her music, her videos, and especially her lyrics, Björk consistently presents a mythic and intimate relationship to the natural world and to the body. In interviews, she’s spoken whimsically of the elves and other nature spirits of her native Iceland, as well as her distaste for monotheism and its crushing of difference and ancient ways.
While not my favorite song of hers, the lyrics and musicality of Claimstaker (from her 2017 album Utopia) show particularly her animist way of seeing the world:
This forest is in me
This forest is in me
I immerse me in these hills
My absolute favorite album of hers, however, is Vespertine, a disc I’ve had to replace multiple times in my life because I listened to it so much (and finally decided to just use the digital version). I think her best song ever is Unison, a song about the difficulty and wonder of feeling “one” with another in a relationship while trying to be your own person as well:
One hand loves the other
So much on me
Born stubborn, me
Will always be
Before you count 123
I will have grown my own private branch
Of this tree
You: gardener
You: discipliner
Domestically
I can obey all of your rules
And still be: be
I never thought i would compromise
Let's unite tonight
We shouldn't fight
Embrace you tight
Let's unite tonight
And of course from that same album is her song, Pagan Poetry, a song about risking love after being hurt by another:
Pedaling through
The dark currents
I find
An accurate copy
A blueprint
Of the pleasure
In me
A secret code carved, a secret code carved
He offers
A handshake
Crooked
Five fingers
They form a pattern
Yet to be matched
On the surface simplicity
But the darkest pit in me
It's pagan poetry
Pagan poetry
Kalandra
Nordic, Pop
Recommended Album: The Line
Artist Website:http://www.kalandra.no/
One of the best parts of writing a series to help people find really awesome pagan/animist/esoteric music is that I end up finding new stuff too.
Kalandra is one of those new finds for me, a band I discovered while doing research on previous bands. And oh—I really love this band.
They are relatively new (2017) and there is painfully little written about them online, so I cannot tell you much about them. However, their music speaks for itself.
Check out the video and lyrics for Virkelighetens Etterklang, my second favorite song of theirs:
Så la meg falle ned
Åpne døren til et sted
Jeg må tørre å få fred
Så ta meg dit ja ta meg hel
La meg falle
La meg falle ned
Våkne opp et annet sted
Jeg må tørre å se ned
Å stirre inn i mørkets sjel
So let me fall down
Open the door to a place
I must dare to have peace
So take me there yes take me whole
Let me fall
Let me fall down
Wake up somewhere else
I must dare to look down
To stare into the soul of darkness
My favorite song of theirs is The Waiting Game, in which the lead singer’s voice becomes reminiscent of Delores O’Riordan (from The Cranberries). The song’s lyrics are ambiguous: it is either about that moment before you end a relationship or the moment before you start one (an ambiguity shown well in the well-directed video’s twist ending).
There's a fire inside me
Waiting for something
Waiting for something
Burning uncontrollably
If I do nothing
If I do nothing
I'm waiting for you
You're waiting for me
Afraid of what we'll find
If we let words run free
You got me stuck in a daze