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…