''Von den Elben'' is the seventh studio album by the German medieval folk band

Faun The faun (, grc, φαῦνος, ''phaunos'', ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were spirits (genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their c ...

. It was released on 25 January 2013. Among new original content it contains a number of cover versions of old Faun tracks and songs by other artists. After signing a contract with the

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label and the Valicon production team, Faun for the first time released an album with lyrics completely in German language. It is the first album to feature members Stephan Groth and Katja Moslehner. The album features duets with two other German bands: Santiano and

Subway to Sally Subway to Sally is a German folk metal band founded in Potsdam in the early 1990s. Their music has clear folk and medieval influences, later also adding gothic and metal elements. With their continuous inclusion of oriental sounds and elements ...

. Michael Boden from Subway to Sally also contributed the lyrics for tracks like "Warte auf mich" ait for Me The title track "Von den Elben" f the Elvesis a rework of a former Faun release from the album Licht. The previous medieval lyrics by

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 ...

were replaced by different lyrics in modern German written by Faun mastermind Oliver s. Tyr.

Reception

While Faun fans voiced their concern about the band joining a major commercial label, professional reviewers agreed that the album did not suffer from this step. The

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reviewer called ''Von den Elben'' a "balancing act between authenticity and mass market compatibility", but wrote also that it contained several valuable tracks. The '' Sonic Seducer'' stated that fears about Faun losing their originality were baseless.

Charts

Despite the initial criticism, the album was also a commercial success. It is the first Faun album to reach top ten positions in the album charts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the first album ever to chart in the latter two countries.

Nomination

With ''Von den Elben'', Faun were nominated for the 2014

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'.

Track list

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Faun (band) albums