Heilung is an experimental

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

band made up of members from

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Their music is based on texts and

runic inscriptions A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of El ...

from

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...

of the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

, and

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

. Heilung describe their music as "amplified history from early medieval northern Europe". Their music is usually about Germanic deities, The Jǫtnar, and

valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997:36) ...

s. "" is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

noun meaning "healing" in English.

History

Heilung was founded in 2014 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

by vocalist Kai Uwe Faust (a German

tattoo artist A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via an ...

who specializes in

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

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...

s) and Danish producer Christopher Juul. Juul, who had operated his own recording studio, Lava, in Copenhagen since 2003, admired Faust's visual work as a tattoo artist, so they struck a deal: Faust offered Juul some free tattoos in exchange for help recording some poems. Thus Heilung was started. Later in 2015 Maria Franz (Juul's longtime girlfriend and a singer in

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

/ pop-rock band Euzen in which Juul also played piano and electronics) started to work with Heilung – originally as a session vocalist. In 2015, the band self-released their debut album, ''Ofnir'', and soon after that Maria Franz became the band's third official member. The band's first performances in 2017 were at

Castlefest Castlefest is a medieval/fantasy festival in the Netherlands, held in the gardens of Castle Keukenhof in Lisse since 2005. History During the first edition in 2005, 3,500 visitors attended the event, in 2007 the festival attracted 16,000 visito ...

and at the Midgardsblot Metalfestival. The Castlefest performance was recorded and released with the title ''Lifa'' on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and as a live album. Their 2017 performance at Midgardsblot was listed by ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...

'' as one of the ten best performances of 2017. Later that year, the band signed a contract with the label

Season of Mist Season of Mist is an independent record label and record distributor with subsidiaries in France and the United States. The record label was founded in 1996 by Michael S. Berberian in Marseille, France. From the start releasing black metal, pag ...

. On 20 April 2018, the two previously self-released albums ''Ofnir'' and ''Lifa'' were reissued on vinyl and CD. The band composed the soundtrack for '' Senua's Saga: Hellblade II''. Fragments of Heilung's music were used during season six of the popular television series ''

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

''. Heilung released their third studio album, ''Drif'', on 19 August 2022 through Season of Mist. The album peaked at No. 9 and No. 25 in the German and Austrian album charts respectively.

Style

According to Faust, the name of the band, "Heilung", which means "healing" in

, says something about the style of the band: "The listener is supposed to be left at ease and in a relaxed state after a magical musical journey that is at times turbulent". The recordings of the band are not limited to music, but also contain

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

and the

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

. The references to the early ages of European Civilization are also made by using texts from historical artefacts or historical poems. The languages used are varied, with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

, Icelandic,

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 ...

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

, and Viking age

being used. As instruments, items are used that may have been already available to humans in the Iron Age, such as drums, bones or spears. According to an August 2018 interview, the instruments they use consist of: * drums, including one with horse skin painted with human blood, two drums with deerskin and a drum with goatskin * bones, including a human forearm bone and deer bones * a buffalo horn

rattle Rattle may refer to: Instruments * Crotalus (liturgy), a liturgical percussion instrument * Rattle (percussion instrument), a type of percussion instrument * Rattle (percussion beater), a part of some percussion instruments * Ratchet (instrume ...

* a clay rattle with human ashes * a Hindu ritual bell * antiques from temples * a reconstructed silver cup from the

Viking age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

* a ravanahatha (an ancient instrument used in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and surrounding areas, originating from Hela People, then brought to

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

, then to India.) * other rattles, whistles and percussive instruments Faust's throat singing recalls the Tibetan or Mongolian style. Juul uses a chirping whisper as vocals. Elaborately designed costumes are worn by the band members on stage. These are partly based on the "spiritual traditions of the

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

n circumpolar peoples", or are historically correct reproductions of Nordic Bronze Age clothing.

Members

Current members * Kai Uwe Faust – vocals (2014–present) * Christopher Juul – music, production (2014–present) * Maria Franz – vocals (2015–present) Session/touring musicians * Jonas Lorentzen (2017-2019) * Juan Pino (2017-2019) * Alex Opazo (2017-present) * Jacob Lund (2017-present) * Nicolas Schipper (2019-present) * Emilie Lorentzen (2018-present) * Annicke Shireen (2018-present) * Mira Ceti (2019-present) Show group ("Heilung warriors") * Marijn Sies (2017-present) * Ruben Terlouw (2017-present) * Pan Bartkowiak (2017-present) * Faber Horbach (2017-present) * Jens de Vries (2017-2019) * Eigen Leon Remie (2017) * Gwydion Zomer (2017-present) * Martin Skou (2018-present) * Emilie Lorentzen (2018-present) * Mira Ceti (2019-present) * Obban (2019-present) * Edward Boyter (2019-present) * Nadja Kalameiets (2019-present) * Nina Schilp (2022-present)

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums * ''Ofnir'' (2015, self-released; reissued in 2018 on Season of Mist) * ''Futha'' (2019, Season of Mist) * ''Drif'' (2022, Season of Mist) Live albums * ''Lifa'' (2017, Season of Mist)

Accolades

Heilung was nominated in the ''Best Underground Band'' category for a

Metal Hammer Golden Gods Award The following is a list of the ''Metal Hammer'' Golden Gods Awards winners. Introduction The awards were conceived by Chris Ingham, John O'Sullivan & Dave Bianchi, and first held at the Kentish Town Forum in London 2003. The show was owned by Fut ...

in 2018. Heilung tied for the World Traditional Award in the 18th Independent Music Awards with the song Norupo.

References

{{Authority control Danish folk music groups German folk music groups Musical groups established in 2014