Vista, Ca. September 12th, 2018 – Viking Folk Rock Band Visits Vista for One Week Only.
The lyrics tell stories of the Norse Sagas, played on ancient musical instruments such as bone-flute, lyre, goat-skin drum, and electric bass guitar. Not real Viking-Age music strictly speaking. This is Denmark based band, KRAUKA, Viking music for the 21st century. Since 1999, Krauka has toured throughout the Nordic region, USA and Eastern Europe with their many strange instruments. They have performed at a wide variety of events, from Viking markets, Music and Cultural festivals, museums and Viking centers. Next week KRAUKA will be in town for the 16th Annual Vista Viking Festival.
Music of Myths and Magic
Combining storytelling and music, KRAUKA takes you on a journey back in time to the Viking Age. Songs inspired by the Norse sagas and myths. Tales of dwarves, trolls, elves and gods, and the music is performed as always on a mix of ancient and modern instruments, creating Viking-Folk-Rock. inspired by the sagas and the Nordic forces of nature. But is it really Viking music?
“We started as storyteller/band, trying to make it as historic as possible – the only problem was that no music has been written down, so all we had was the oldest known music (ca. 1200 AC) and the oldest known stories/sagas, which reach into the viking age. Together with our lively imagination we made the first cd Vikinga Seidur (viking songs).”, explains Jens Villy Pedersen. Founding member who plays boneflutes, a flute which could be a shawm, jewharp, lyre, maybe a rebec, maybe a claydrum, and horns made from wood. The type of Instruments which are found in the archaeological from the period. In fact, the members of the band play many reconstructed ancient instruments. Band member Aksel Striim specializes in the 3 hole boneflute, made from the bones of sheep, swan or deer. Aksel made his lyre, which resembles the Trossingen lyre from 600 AC in north of Germany. Jens and Askel grew up in Denmark, surrounded with Viking history and Norse Mythology. Lead singer and chief researcher Guðjón Rúdolf Guðmundsson hails from Iceland, “…Iceland is a very special place. In Iceland, people still believe in elves, trolls and the other creatures. Says Jens “…myths/sagas, gods and trolls is a part of his DNA”.
How all that makes Viking music is explained well by the bands only all-electric band-member bass player Søren Koldsen-Zederkof. “We make our own music; we may have a few new arrangements of traditional Scandinavian tunes in our repertoire, but nobody knows what Viking music sounded like.” He continues, “The remains of ancient Viking instruments have been found, and we have taken inspiration from them, but we compose our own music and so what we present is our own take on what Viking music is today!” RootsWorld online says of KRAUKA,
“There is a visceral feeling in these songs that ties old sounds to new. There is an energy in the stories they tell. And it all works in ways that maybe only Viking music can.”
– Greg Harnes*
This impressive reputation drew the attention of the Vista Viking Festival, who invited the band to play at the Annual Vista Viking Festival, September 22nd and 23rd, 2018.
Sagas, Folktales and Storytelling.
While in Vista, KRAUKA’s original trio will pay tribute to their storytelling roots on Wednesday, September 19th, as part of a three nights of “A Viking Fest Cal to Arms”. Hosted by Twisted Horn Mead and Cider, and the Storytellers of San Diego. It all started for KRAUKA on a trip to a Greenland Viking Market, when Icelandic Storyteller Ingibjörg Gisladottir, hired three musicians to add atmosphere to her telling of Leif Erikson’s journey to Vineland. They built themselves instruments, and practiced old Icelandic songs and melodies. They had such a great experience, they were not content as background musicians. According to Jens, “When you sit many hours on a Viking market and play simple instruments, things happens and songs appear, sometimes our own songs, sometimes we take a saga. It all evolved because we couldn’t stop. KRAUKA will be sharing the stage with Storytellers Patti Christensen ,Aunt Li-Anne, and James Nelson.Lucas for “Talk Tales Like a Viking, A Night of Skaldship.
For more information:
Krauka at: www.krauka.dk
Vista Viking Festival at: https://vistavikingfestival.com/
A Night of Skaldship: https://www.facebook.com/events/227596434779025/
Storytellers of San Diego at: www.storytellersofsandiego.org/
Twisted Horn Mead and Cider at: www.twistedhornmead.com/
*GregBarnes: http://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/krauka-14.shtml
