Amplified History: Heilung to perform at VBCC Wednesday

Oct. 24—Wednesday night, Oct. 25, the enigmatic ritual collective Heilung will perform at the VBCC Concert Hall. Guests will be taken far back into history as the band explores mankind's earliest relationship with music. The band describes its unique style and sound as "amplified history" and has been featured in pop culture favorites "Game of Thrones" and "Vikings," as well as video games and movies.

The band will perform songs from their most recent album "Drif," which came out in 2022. Keeping with the band's tradition, Heilung will donate one dollar from each ticket sold to planting trees in an effort to support reforestation.

Heilung is made up of core members Maria Franz of Norway, Christopher Juul of Denmark and Kai Uwe Faust of Germany. The News Courier recently sat down with Franz and Juul to discuss Heilung's world tour, including their first visit to north Alabama.

Q: How would you describe your music?

A: Juul: What we do, I would call it more like a mixed art form than the music alone. We have chosen to label it as "amplified history." What we do, we create books, we create music, we create soundscapes and poetry and live rituals that encompass under the term "amplified history." What we try to say with that is we don't want to dictate like directly in the history book. We have a certain sort of artistic expression within it. We don't want to dictate how it was but we want you to feel how it was. How it smelled back then and how it might have sounded, to some extent.

A: Franz: You get sometimes a welcome break from everyday noise pollution, stress and worries. To come to one of our live rituals, should create space where you are allowed to breath for a while. Let go of all worry and just be present together with of the beautiful people we have come to get to know during the years of touring in the U.S. We are looking so much forward to coming back.

For me, it depends a bit who asks because if it's my dentist, I say we play Viking music. If it's someone who are genuinely interested in hearing what we are doing, Christopher's answer is the more in depth correct one.

A: Juul: A lot of what we do is from a much wider historical aspect than from the so called Viking period. The Viking period is a relatively small part of history where the Northman went Christian. I can tell you one thing there is a lag of is Christianity.

A: Franz: It is pre-Christian ritualistic music.

Q: How did this project come about and how did it evolve into what we are going to see?

A: Franz: We are three core members in Heilung — the two of us and Kai who sadly not join us because he is out camping in the U.S. right now. He came to Christopher with some ritualistic poetry that he had written that he would like to record in Christopher's studio. We knew each other through Viking reenactment and he is a tattoo artist so they made this trade like, "Yeah, you can record this poetry and I will get a tattoo and everything is going to be happy about that." Then he went into the vocal booth and he was..Kai. He started to scream and growl and be theatric and Chris got very quickly smitten. We asked if we could evolve a bit on it and add some beats on it and the rest is history.

A: Juul: It's a constant moving object, creating something like this. We have seen a lot of different people joining our live rituals and help creating and shape that. Compared to the first rituals we have done, we have almost changed out everyone because it is a moving object. The intention and energy is the same but it also grows and becomes different. One place you will really see a big difference compared to the recorded material is we have a lot more women on stage now. We are half and half at this point which is important to us to tell the story of the times and where we come from. That can not be said with only one gender.

A: Franz: It is a very international group. We are going to have three U.S. warriors with us for the tour which we are very proud of. The Warrior Choir is a group within the group. It has grown over the years, We started with four warriors and, when I say warriors, we have a warrior choir on stage and they stand with spears and shields. They shout, they scream and dance, and they are wild and crazy. The audition to become a warrior for Heilung is always open. Anyone can send an email and learn how to apply.

A: Juul: It's not easy though.

Q: Is it fair to say it is a blend of all forms of ancient music?

A: Juul: What is Viking music? If we take Viking music of what we have of actual instruments, it will be very different than what people expect it to be in this day and age because of pop culture. We have only found tiny flutes and almost inaudible lyres. We have found no drums at all. No big drums or anything like that from the time. It would be quite a different soundscape than these deep voices. There are some written down descriptions on how it might have sounded it here when some Iranian travelers went up North and heard them sing. I think the description is something like, it must have sounded like barrels falling down a hill and dogs howling. To their very fine, cultural ears of that time, it must have sounded horrible.

We do borrow from where we have gaps. One of the places we borrow is obviously through drums. It is based on the assumption that in any tribal context, you'd find drums. You will find that all over the world.

The concept is, the notes we are playing on is a universal language. We believe that music comes from a much more ancient language than any of us could relate to and understand. You just need to go far enough back in time to actually get this. That is essentially what we take out and amplify.

A: Franz: Also, the Vikings loved to travel and they were very happy to bring back exotic items. I think it is whatever sounds right in our ears.

Q: From album to album, do you work on different themes?

A: Juul: The first one is a masculine album and deals a lot with masculinity from the time. The second album is a feminine album. It's not like cupcakes and pink and stuff like that. It's like real femininity as lions roar. The last album is interesting because it's about a gathering of people. It's a gathering of different songs that doesn't necessarily go under one umbrella as one theme as single as the first two albums. It is more like different aspects you would see from the great cultures such as the Roman Empire and also stuff from Mesopotamia that also somehow have influenced the north back in the Bronze Age. There you call it more of a collection of different aspects.

Q: Do you see a wide variety of people in your audiences?

A: Franz: Oh yeah! We are continuously amazed by it. We have everything from a 5-year-old dressed up like me up front to like a pretty man in a suit with his wife in high heels and the lipstick. Then this crazy Pagan crowd with their own antlers on the head with face paint. A couple of elderly people by the bar dancing. It is fantastic for us to see and it is really, I have never encountered a project who has such variety in our listening base and we extremely grateful for that.

A: Juul: In the beginning of every ritual we start with a poem stating that we are all brothers. Doesn't mean we are excluding any genders here. We mean we are all connected and we all descend from one great being. We do not exclude anyone. Heilung, in modern terms, is non-religious and non-political project. Everyone, no matter what gender, political view, religious view, color of your skin, cultural heritage, it doesn't matter. Everyone is welcome and should be welcome at every show we do. Be part of that celebration of what it is to be human together. We leave our differences at the door and then we enjoy life together at this ritual and create a Holy space for that. That is what we try to — find the places we can agree and be humans together and heal maybe.

Tickets are still available for Heilung's performance in Huntsville. Tickets are available at amplifiedhistorytour.com and albums are available through the Seasons of Mist store.