When I Look To The West

Greetings! Here’s a new single release called When I Look To The West. It’s as genre fluid as all our music, with elements of dark folk and ambient folk, with hints of medieval flavour and a wistful, soundtrack feel. It’s on all main streaming and download sites. We hope you like it!

The Eternal Quest

Here is a new release from Thousand Yard Prayer – The Eternal Quest. It’s a five track album/EP but the Bandcamp download version has a couple of extra tunes. The release dates are 7 April on Bandcamp, 8 April everywhere else, all mainstream streaming and downlaod sites. All of the tracks have videos and these can be found on our YouTube channel and also on Bandcamp.

There isn’t an overarching theme for this collection of tunes but if there is a common thread, it’s middle eastern evocative melodies and sounds with a soupçon of European medieval flavour. We think fans of dungeon synth and fantasy game music might like this release.

Drums Of A Dark Age

Films and TV shows like Vikings, Vikings: Valhalla, The Last Kingdom and The Northman have raised awareness of our pre-medieval history. We’re exploring that history and the mythologies of that era.

Here is our latest album release, Drums Of A Dark Age, a collection of tunes using mostly Dark Age, pre-medieval, neofolk instruments and sounds but with drum and bass beats.

Drums Of A Dark Age is available on all main streaming and download sites from 1 April 2022.

There are a couple of extra tracks with the Bandcamp download version. They’re only bonus tracks because they don’t have drum and bass beats but otherwise, they fit perfectly!

Whale Bone Dragon Stone Episode 2

Here’s the second episode of our new podcast/show, Whale Bone Dragon Stone. We continue to explore some of the genres and artists we’ve been discovering during this last year or two, such as Norse folk, Celtic folk, dark folk, ritual folk, dungeon synth, neomedieval music, fantasy music, RPG music and similar musical styles.

Tracks

1 Sowulo – Wydd Webba
2 Secret Archives Of The Vatican – The Loremaster
3 Forndom – Och Med Vinden Ack De Gunga
4 Hrafngrímr – Einherjar
5 Urferd – Avfärd
6 Borg – Et Frö Rota I Majgrevens Lustgardh
7 Vinterskogen – Eviggrønn
8 Poeta Magica – Trolltanz
9 Murgrind – Awakening in an Ancient Realm

Most of these artists have releases available on Bandcamp.com and we totally recommend exploring their releases. Many of them are also on streaming sites such as Spotify. Please support these artists – music has value!

Don’t forget to go back and listen to Episode 1 if you haven’t already heard it.

Time Only Knows – Secret Archives of the Vatican Podcast 154

Although we’ve recently started a new podcast, Whale Bone Dragon Stone, we are still committed to recording our traditional Secret Archives of the Vatican podcast. Here is episode 154!

As always, it’s an eclectic mix of tunes, generally with some non-western influence.

Tracks

1 Sowulo – Brego in Brēoste (Byzantium Version)
2 Alina Gingertail – Prince of Persia (Time Only Knows)
3 Faolan – Princess of Persia
4 Thousand Yard Prayer – Haradwaith
5 Osmani Soundz – Dormant Phaze
6 Omizu Sound – Persian Dubstep
7 Produso – Mandem

Whale Bone Dragon Stone Episode 1

We’ve just started a new podcast type show on MixCloud to explore some of the genres and artists we’ve been discovering during this last year or two, such as Norse folk, Celtic folk, dark folk, ritual folk, dungeon synth, neomedieval music, fantasy music, RPG music and similar musical styles. We’ll still be producing the long-running Secret Archives of the Vatican podcast as well!

Tracks

1 Aulë the Smith – Secret Archives Of The Vatican
2 Fǫður Fall Fyrst Of Telja – Nattramn
3 Bloodaxe’s Fury – Herknungr
4 Grieving Baldr – Einar Selvik
5 Ravens – A Tergo Lupi
6 Fenris Kinder (Völuspá, 40-41) – Nytt Land
7 Wyrd Bið Ful Aræd – Fljúga Hrafna
8 Wind Of Oblivion – Dryadel

The Battle Of Brunanburh

We’ve been releasing a short series of tracks where Viking era sounds meet drum and bass beats. The Battle Of Brunanburh is the third single. In April 2022, we will release an album called Drums Of A Dark Age with our series of singles and some extra tracks.

The Battle of Brunanburh was fought in 937 between Æthelstan, King of England, and an alliance of Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin; Constantine II, King of Scotland, and Owain, King of Strathclyde. The battle was one of the most significant battles in the history of the British Isles.

The poem Battle of Brunanburh in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recounts that there were “never yet as many people killed before this with sword’s edge … since the east Angles and Saxons came up over the broad sea“.

Æthelstan‘s victory preserved the unity of England. The historian Æthelweard wrote around 975 that: “the fields of Britain were consolidated into one, there was peace everywhere, and abundance of all things“.

Vikings and Byzantines…

This new release by Sowulo captures SO much of the music that Secret Archives of the Vatican loves!
In the last couple of years we have been exploring northern European folk, premedieval and medieval traditions, in some ways a departure from our more traditional interests in middle eastern flavoured music. We’ve always had an interest, though, in where medieval music and middle eastern music overlap, which they do a lot!

One of the bands we have come to love is Sowulo – their musicianship is second to none and they stand out among the artists in the neofolk scene. Their Bandcamp profile calls them atmospheric nordic dark folk. Here they have reworked one of their recent tracks, Brego in Brēoste , with an amazing middle eastern version. There are two mixes, one with vocal elements, one instrumental.

They say this:

As a fan of traditional music from all over the world I felt inspired to create something complete different for a change. Enjoying music from bands like Irfan, Stellamara and Dead Can Dance, I tought it would be fun to transform one of my own compositions into something that sounds a bit more Middle Eastern.

Fascinated by stories of the Byzantine empire and the Halfdan rune inscription in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Instanbul, Turkey), I wondered what it would be like to travel to Instanbul in long forgotten times.

Together with some great musicians I had a lot of fun transmuting this reverie into music. This is what it sounds like…

Phat Of The Land – Podcast episode 153

It’s been about nine months since our last podcast episode, really for no reason other than being busy with other things and our musical interests going a different direction. However, although we add new genres and traditions to our musical interests, we don’t stop liking what we already liked. So, here is episode 153 of our podcast and it explores the same broad transglobal breakbeat dub science we always love to share with you. There is something of a drum and bass emphasis in this episode and we hope you like it.

Tracks

1 The Phat Indian – Vision
2 Nuphlo – Pearl
3 Juttla – Sadhu
4 Thousand Yard Prayer – Iram Of The Pillars
5 Steff3Beatz – Egypt Mode
6 Khanum – Eastern Bounce
7 FEARSTbeats – Omri
8 FM Style – Bollywood

Peredur [Dark Age Music, neofolk, ritual folk]

Greetings, people! Here’s a tune we haven’t released as a single but which will be on our Paladin album due for release Friday 7 January. It’s called Peredur and references the pre-medieval Arthurian legends.

This is the sound of the Dark Ages (which, of course, weren’t dark). Neofolk, amplified history, featuring tagelharpa, frame drums, a Saxon lyre and some post-dubstep electronica. Genre-defying music because we can, inspired by amazing artists such as Heilung, Nytt Land and Wardruna. It builds, so please watch all the way through and don’t forget to hit the thumbs up icon as this encourages the YouTube robot to share our videos with more people.

We appreciate your support!