Faun is a German band that was formed in 1998 and plays pagan folk,

darkwave Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...

, and

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissanc ...

. The originality of their music style is that it falls back to "old" instruments, and the singing is always the center of attention. The vocals are performed in a variety of languages, including German, English, Latin, Greek, and Scandinavian languages. Their instruments include

Celtic harp The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring grea ...

, Swedish

nyckelharpa A nyckelharpa (, "keyed fiddle", or literally "key harp", plural ) is the national musical instrument of Sweden. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to chang ...

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

cittern The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

s, and many others.

History

The band was founded in 1998 by Oliver s. Tyr, Elisabeth Pawelke, Fiona Rüggeberg, and Birgit Muggenthaler. Two years later, Rüdiger Maul joined the band as a percussionist. At the same time, Birgit left the band to continue her musical life with the folk-rock band Schandmaul. In 2002, they released their first album ''Zaubersprüche''. Niel Mitra was a guest musician on this album, and he later became a full-time member of the band, the only one playing only electronic instruments. In 2003, the band released its second album, ''Licht'', and performed at several festivals in support of this music." Live Review: Faun – Berlin 2013"
''Reflections of Darkness'' 08 November 2013 Johannes Steigmann Elisabeth Pawelke left Faun in 2008 to focus on her studies in classical song in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, Switzerland. She was succeeded by Sandra Elflein, who left Faun in April 2010 due to a pregnancy and health issues. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Rairda replaced her but left the band in 2012. She was succeeded by Katja Moslehner. In 2013, the band toured Europe, including Berlin. Later that year, they published their seventh studio album '' Von den Elben'', which became the first Faun album to reach top ten positions in the album charts of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and was also their first album to chart in the latter two countries. It was nominated for the

ECHO In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

award in the categories 'National Rock/Pop Group' and 'National Newcomer of the Year'. On 19 August 2016, the band released an album called ''

Midgard In Germanic cosmology, Midgard (an anglicised form of Old Norse ; Old English , Old Saxon , Old High German , and Gothic ''Midjun-gards''; "middle yard", "middle enclosure") is the name for Earth (equivalent in meaning to the Greek term , "inhab ...

''. It quickly reached third place in the German album ranking. The following year, Katja Moslehner left the band. She was replaced by Laura Fella. On 15 November 2019, the band released Märchen & Mythen, their tenth studio album. In 2020, founding member Fiona Frewert announced her departure from the band. She was replaced by singer-songwriter Adaya. After five albums released by

Universal Music Germany Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

, Faun established their own record label in 2021, Pagan Folk Records. The first album to be released on this label is Faun's '' Pagan'', set for April 2022.

Style

Music

Faun is a prime example of "Mittelalter" music, a German musical style mixing

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

folk and

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exampl ...

. To express their own bond with nature the band coined the term "Pagan Folk" for one style of their concerts. While the term was initially used for electronically amplified concerts only, it is now used by fans and band for their music itself. A quote by Oliver Pade reveals another possibility for having chosen this specific term: "We don't know ourselves what kind of music we play, so we call it paganfolk" (Oliver Pade 2004 in a song announcement at the 2004 Summer Darkness in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, Netherlands). The ''

Münchner Merkur The ''Münchner Merkur'' (, literally "Munich Mercurius", i.e. the Roman god of messengers) is a German Bavarian daily subscription newspaper, which is published from Monday to Saturday. It is located in Munich and belongs to the Müncher Merkur ...

'' defines it as "a sometimes experimental mix of folk elements, medieval and traditional music from different epochs and regions as well as modern, even electronic influences". Faun's repertoire ranges from melancholic ballads to exuberant dances like the Brittanic

An Dro An dro or ''en dro'' ( Breton: "The Turn") is a Breton folk dance in . It is a form of a circle dance. Technique The dancers link little fingers in a long line, swinging their arms, and moving to their left by taking longer steps in that direc ...

. Thereby they set historical tunes from various periods and regions to music and on the other hand create a lot of their own compositions as well. Faun combines ancient Perso-

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

melodies with the Swedish nyckelharpa and

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...

lyrics. Equally distinguishing are Pawelke's and Rüggeberg's singing, mostly in two voices and, on newer recordings, the driving beat by Niel Mitra. Mitra has described the essence of the band as a form of "musical

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

", due to the different musical interests of the members and how they are combined in Faun's music.Otti. 19 March 2006
Nightshade Interview - Faun
Nightshade. The debut album ''Zaubersprüche'' deals mainly with slow ballads from the era between the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

and

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. The instrumentation is kept entirely acoustic and waives modern instruments and electronic beats. The second album features far less ballads but offers considerably more danceable tunes like ''Andro'', ''Unda'' or the double song ''Deva/Punagra''.

Lyrics

The lyrics originate from very different languages, Standard German,

, Old Icelandic, Low German,

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, Hungarian,

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, and Ladino among them. Among lyrics of their own, the group uses or writes lyrics inspired by classical texts such as the

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

("Satyros", "Renaissance"), the

Cantigas de Santa Maria The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they a ...

("Da que Deus", "Renaissance"),

Jenaer Liederhandschrift The Jenaer Liederhandschrift (German, the "Jena song manuscript") is a 14th-century manuscript containing lyrics and melodies to songs in Middle High German. The majority of the lyrics belong to the genre of Spruchdichtung and, with 91 melodies, t ...

from

Vitslav III, Prince of Rügen Vitslav III (1265/8–1325), variously called Vislav, Vizlav, Wislaw, Wizlaw and Witslaw in English sources, was the last Slavic ruler of the Danish Principality of Rugia. He is often identified with the author of the Minnesinger Vitslav of ...

("Loibere Risen", "Renaissance"),

Egils Saga ''Egill's Saga'' or ''Egil's saga'' ( non, Egils saga ; ) is an Icelandic saga (family saga) on the lives of the clan of Egill Skallagrímsson (Anglicised as Egill Skallagrimsson), an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald. The saga spans the year ...

("Licht"), the

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

("Sigurdlied", "Buch der Balladen"),

Heinrich von Morungen Heinrich von Morungen or Henry of Morungen (died c. 1220 or 1222) was a German Minnesinger. Life Almost nothing about his life can be deduced from Heinrich's songs. Possibly he is identical with the ''Hendricus de Morungen'' who is documented in T ...

("Von den Elben", "Licht"), the

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

King Henry, as well as from romantic and modern authors such as John Keats ("Der Wilde Wasermann", "Buch der Balladen"),

Baron Munchausen Baron Munchausen (; ) is a fictional German nobleman created by the German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe in his 1785 book ''Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia''. The character is loosely based on a real ...

("2 Falken", "Totem" and "Jahrtausendalt", "Buch der Balladen"), José Melchor Gomis ("Tinta", "Totem"),

Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 178826 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism.Cf. J. A. Cuddon: ' ...

("Der stille Grund", "Totem"), Felicitas Kukuck ("Tanz über die Brücke", Buch der Balladen") and others. Faun seek to promote a form of paganism they characterise as

nature religion A nature religion is a religious movement that believes nature and the natural world is an embodiment of divinity, sacredness or spiritual power. Beyer 1998. p. 11. Nature religions include indigenous religions practiced in various parts of th ...

. They are however not hostile to Christian culture and are open to performing Christian songs. They have stressed that many Christian traditions have a pagan origin or pagan components. Oliver s. Tyr has said that he is opposed to the church, but regards Christianity as a good religion and thinks it is better to be a Christian than to have no faith at all.

Meaning of the name

The name Faun comes from ancient

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

mythology, where it equals the herders' deity

Faunus In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the rustic god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan, after which Romans depicted him as a ...

or Pan. According to the band, this figure which is often also depicted as a natural or forestal spirit, shall express the members' connection with nature. For the same reason Oliver Pade's pseudonym is the

Satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exa ...

, who is closely related to Faunus.

Members

*Oliver s. Tyr – vocals,

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

, jaw harp *Rüdiger Maul –

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bi ...

, riq,

davul The davul, dhol, tapan, atabal or tabl is a large double-headed drum that is played with mallets. It has many names depending on the country and region. These drums are commonly used in the music of the Middle East and the Balkans. These drums ...

, panriqello, darabukka,

timbau The timbau or Brazilian timbal is a membranophone instrument derived from the caxambu drum, usually played with both hands. Slightly conical and of varying sizes, it is usually light in weight and made of lacquered wood or metal (usually alumin ...

, gaxixi and many other

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

instruments *Niel Mitra – sequencer, sampler, synthesizer, FL Studio, Buzz,

Logic Audio Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which later went by Em ...

, tascam us 224, boss dr 202, Korg Alpha,

granular synthesis Granular synthesis is a sound synthesis method that operates on the microsound time scale. It is based on the same principle as sampling. However, the samples are split into small pieces of around 1 to 100 ms in duration. These small pieces ar ...

, folder synthesis, feedbacks, sounds taken from nature and everyday life *Stephan Groth – vocals, hurdy-gurdy, flutes, cittern *Laura Fella – vocals, Framedrum, Mandola *Adaya – vocals, bagpipes, flutes, pandora, celtic harp, bouzouki

Former members

*Elisabeth Pawelke – vocals,

*Birgit Muggenthaler –

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a lar ...

shawm The shawm () is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after which it was gradually eclipsed by th ...

, vocals *Sandra Elflein – vocals,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

*Rairda – vocals, harp, flutes, percussion instruments,

*Sonja Drakulich – vocals, dulcimer, percussion instruments *Katja Moslehner – vocals, percussion instruments *Fiona Frewert (born Rüggeberg) – vocals, recorders,

s, seljefloyte

Discography

Studio albums

— denotes an album that did not chart The band feature as guest musicians on several tracks of the 2009

Mediæval Bæbes The Mediæval Bæbes are a British musical ensemble founded in 1996 by Dorothy Carter and Katharine Blake. It included some of Blake's colleagues from the band Miranda Sex Garden, as well as other friends who shared her love of medieval music. ...

album ''Illumination''.

Live albums

*''FAUN & The Pagan Folk Festival – Live'' feat. Sieben & In Gowan Ring (2008)

DVD

*''Lichtbilder'' (DVD, 2004) *''Ornament'' (DVD, 2008)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Faun German musical groups Musical groups established in 1998 Pagan-folk musicians 2002 establishments in Germany Polydor Records artists Modern pagan musical groups Modern paganism in Germany