Dutch dark folk artist Kati Rán reveal first single »Stone Pillars« taken from her new full-length album »Sála«; out on May 24th via Svart Records!

Dutch dark folk artist Kati Rán has revealed a visualizer for the first single »Stone Pillars« taken from her forthcoming album, »Sála«, set to release on May 24th, 2024 via Svart Records.

Kati comments: “This is about the upcoming first single »Stone Pillars«, and the inspiration I drew from. Stone Pillars is not a typical ‘viking’ genre song by any means, though its contents are steeped in Nordic mythology, historic instruments and references to old ritual customs. It is also one of few songs written in English, besides Nordic languages on the new album »Sála«.”

Tracklist:
01. Sála
02. Hefring
03. Kólga | 16
04. Blodbylgje
05. Dröfn | Drifting
06. Stone Pillars
07. Dúfa | Sleeping
08. Unnr | Mindbeach
09. Himinglæva
10. Hrönn
11. Bára | Bósi
12. Segið Mér
13. Sátta

Courtesy of Svart Records:

Dutch artist and Nordic folk pioneer Kati Rán presents the first single »Stone Pillars« from the upcoming album »Sála«.

The track written and performed by Kati Rán, explores new prophecies, stone circles, and the hand of the spinning Fates. Lyrically, »Stone Pillars« hints at the Icelandic oldest counsel tradition of the Allting, old Nordic Gods, and a prophecy by a female seer.

Kati Rán elaborates: “I’m looking forward to opening the floodgates to »Sála« with the release of the first single and opening track »Stone Pillars«. It embraces our most vulnerable side, questions our mind, and attempts to resurrect or reposition ourselves through spinning with the Fates. It dips right into the heart of things.”

With Norwegian metal vocalist extraordinaire Gaahl (Gaahl, Wyrd, Wardruna), Mitch Harris (Napalm Death) and Jaani Peuhu (IANAI) on backing vocals, Icelandic backing vocals from the band Umbra Ensemble, and the resurrection of a rare lava stone marimba (Sígur Rós, Steindór Andersson) the new single »Stone Pillars« is deeply set in a Nordic landscape, as the 1st single of the new album »Sála« (24th May 2024).

Photo by Ruben Terlouw

If the most profound treasures are often the most deeply buried, the journey to uncover them is vital process of discovery. Five years after the 15-minute single »Blodbylgje« signaled the birth of a new, more primordial, and immersive vision after the dissolution of her band L.E.A.F., Nordic dark folk artist Kati Rán has expanded on its oceanic theme for her long-awaited full-length album, »Sála«. Embarking on a far-reaching musical and personal travelogue, it’s a reawakening of both the feminine narratives submerged and fragmented within Norse mythology, and the enduring, healing powers held within.

Named after the Old Norse word for ‘soul’ and ‘sea’, »Sála« is an act of ‘soul retrieval’, the shamanic art of trauma recovery, be it illness, death, heartbreak or loss, and the reintegration of a splintered self. Across its 13, wide-ranging, elegantly unfolding tracks, the album is an embodiment of different feminine voices and perspectives – from the Norse nine daughters of the sea, or ‘billow maidens’, through various historical and fictional figures to the late-night voices we hear in our most liminal states – all with tales to tell, riddles to solve, challenges to be accepted and guidance to offer. It’s a multiplicity that, like the ocean itself, belongs to a vast, restless dynamic: a matrix of mysteries, unfathomable depths and ever-shifting currents, accumulating into an elemental, regenerative source of power.

Recorded in a barn in Húsafell, Iceland – home to glacier ice caves and a rare lava stone marimba rediscovered for the track »Stone Pillars« – as well as Finland, Norway and at home in Kati’s native Netherlands, »Sála« is as much chronicle of Kati’s own perspective-shifting recording process as it as a pilgrimage through different viewpoints and internal states. That itinerate urge is also reflected in the use of different languages, ranging across Norwegian, Old Norse, Icelandic, and, for the first time, English, her combination of ancient texts, historical reimagining’s and unguarded personal reflection backed up by deep research into the most resonant recesses of Nordic lore.

Spun throughout every thread of »Sála« is a sense of communion – with the power of stories to offer moral guidance and the thrill of the unknown; with the element of water, recreated across the album both in field recordings and the agelessly organic nature of the music itself; with the archetypes whose qualities we are called upon to embody at our most critical moments; and with the internal hidden realms forever whispering at us from the far edges of our consciousness.

Appropriately, it’s a collaborative venture too. As well as working closely together with Finnish producer Jaani Peuhu, there are contributions from across the musical spectrum, including extreme metal vocalist extraordinaire Gaahl, the Icelandic female choir Umbra Ensemble, renowned Norwegian jazz musician Karl Seglem, Björk and Brian Eno contrabassist Borgar Magnason, members of pagan folk acts Völuspá, Gealdýr, Heilung and Theodor Bastard and even Napalm Death’s Mitch Harris on vocals.

For all the many sources »Sála« draws from, the result is a singular, intimately transformative rite of passage, and a retuning of the heart to the reverent continuity of the sacred. It will take you from the opening title track’s chest-pounding rhythmic pulse emerging from a traditional Norwegian bukkehorn (recorded by Karl Seglem), a galloping horse-rider and Kati’s glacial, velveteen chant, through »Kólga«’s recounting of female persecution through the ages borne on the most gossamer-light yet unbreakable of timbres and »Stone Pillar«’s gently percolating, deep wells of abandonment and incantations to recovery. »Sála« closes with the track »Sátta” – Old Norse for ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ – ending the album as it began with the bukkehorn, as it weaves rich drones and experience-stamped poems and prayers, Kati’s vocals the most sensitively tuned of emotional barometers. An album made in dedication, and in thrall to, its own sense of destiny, »Sála« is, as all quests must ultimately be, a homecoming.

Album introduction written by Jonathan Selzer.

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well