The Pagan Music List #7: FAUN, Hexperos, Kati Rán
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Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).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 7:FAUN, HEXPEROS, Kati Rán
FAUN
Traditional, Folk, Chant
Recommended Album: All, but especially EDEN
Artist Website: https://faune.de/en/
FAUN really deserves its own feature in the Pagan Music List, because no other band comes close to their artistry.
FAUN was founded in Germany in 1998 and released their first album, Zauberspruche (magic spell) in 2002. Since their founding they have released ten albums (not including one compilation), each of which is brilliant in its own right.
What sets FAUN apart from all other bands, however, are their performances which feel somewhere in between a chamber music festival and an ancient pagan ritual. They are not just good musicians, they are expert musicians, especially (and I’ll try not to choke up here) the particularly brilliant Fiona Rüggeberg, a founding member who just left the band last year.
Fiona is a master of ancient and medieval wind instruments, especially the cornemuse du centre, bagpipes played for centuries in central France. More incredible than her skilled playing of any particular instrument, however, is how gracefully and almost invisibly she can switch between them multiple times during one song…while also singing.
For example, watch this video of a live performance of the song Pearl.
One of my favorite recent songs from the band is Odin, recorded and performed together with members of Wardruna.
In eisiger Vorzeit hast du einst gewacht
Hast Gungnir geworfen, warst Speer in der Schlacht
Zogst durch die Neun Welten als Wandrer bei Nacht
Hast uns Mimirs heiligen Brunnen wieder gebracht
Neun Tage hingst du
In Yggrasils Zweigen
Neun lange Nächte
Für 16 magische ZeichenIn the icy prehistory you once watched
Throwing Gungnir, you were spear in battle
Wandered through the Nine Worlds by night
Brought back Mimir's holy well
You hung for nine days
In Yggrasil's branches
Nine long nights
For 16 magic signs
They have no songs I don’t like. My absolute favorite of theirs is actually two songs which they perform together, the old English passion play song “Adam Lay Ybounden” with the Irish melody “The Butterfly.”
Hexperos
FOLK, Traditional, Medieval
Recommended Album: Garden of the Hesperides
Artist Website: https://www.hexperos.com/
Hexperos is a project by Alessandra Santovito (formerly of a defunct but rather fun electro project called Gothica) and Francesco Forgione.
The name Hexperos combines two other words, Hesperos (the vesper star) and the Hesperidi, the nymphs of the fading light of day at sunset and twilight. The music is quite simple and haunting, with most of the lyrics coming from poems Santovito has written.
I recommend two songs by them. The first is Diadem of the Night.
Diadem of the night
So is the moon
A precious stone
Her round heart is a womb
Holding a timid light
She's pale, silky, stretches out her fingers
Reaches you, caresses your face
Icy softness, illusive feeling
The fullness of a moment whose memory is already almost gone.
And the second is Time of Spirit.
We were in a wood at night alone
When by moonlight we saw a Spirit walking
He talked to us, we heard a strange story
Only love can cure his old hurt soul
Kati Rán
Folk, Traditional, Nordic
Recommended Album:LYS
Artist Website: https://www.kati-ran.nl/
Kati Rán is a Dutch-born self-taught pagan musician, skilled in several traditional northern European instruments (including the nykelharpa and the kraviklyra) and who sings in multiple Nordic languages. In addition, she often works with musicians from the better-known Heilung and FAUN, members of which often record with her.
Her most well-known song is Suurin (“greatest”), a Finnish chant of bravery.
Mie suusi suurin
Suveks syömää
Muut lampaaks lautsan alle
Mie suusi suurin
Mie karhu kankahalla
Miun veret pieälimmäisinä
Mie suusi suurin
Suveks Syömään
Muut lauhtuoh lampahaksi
Muut lampahiksi
Minä sudeksi
Mie suusi suurinI am the greatest wolf
A wolf to eat them
Others will be sheep under the bench
I am the greatest wolf
I am a bear on the heath
My blood above all others
I am the greatest wolf
A wolf to eat them
Others grow weaker to be sheep
May I be a wolf
May others be sheep
I am the greatest wolf
Also from the same album (LYS) is the song Harpa Toner, a darker Nordic version of “The Bonny Swans” made famous by Loreena McKennit. The lyrics tell of two sisters, the eldest of which drowns the younger in order to steal her fiancé. When later her corpse is found (in the English version the girl turned into a swan, in this one she doesn’t), a harp is made of her body which later sings the tale of how she was murdered.
Det var to gjetere på den strand
Og de så liket som fløt i land
De tok fra hennes kropp et ben
Og lagde av det en harpe ven
De tok to lokker av hennes hår
Og harpa gyldne strenger får
Til søsterens bryllup ble…It was later this evening
That the harp played by itself
When the first string sounded
It told of the bride's evil deeds
Then the other string struck
The ride who petrified stood
When the third string sounded
The evil sister fell to her death