Recording: Völur

Artist: Völur

Song: Fremdheit, Fremdheit

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (TONE Festival), July 3, 2022.

Völur - Fremdheit, Fremdheit

If you think of Völur as folk band, instead of getting caught up in dissecting metal subgenres, their willingness to engage in a wide variety of musical practices falls right into place. Part of a recent-ish collaborative EP, this piece sees bassist Lucas Gadke show off his developing tanbur skills (and also sees John D. Williams joining in on clarinet).

Recording: Völur

Artist: Völur

Song: Psychopomp

Recorded at Jam Factory (Intersection – Day 2), September 1, 2017.

Völur - Psychopomp

In recent years, the Intersection Festival would normally consist of a paid concert, usually the night before the day-long extravaganza in Yonge-Dundas Square. This year, however, under the continued guidance of Burn Down The Capital's Tad Michalak the festival expanded to four events, including a pair of concerts at The Jam Factory.

The last time I saw this local doom-folk group play, violinist Laura C. Bates claimed it was their "first and last sit-down show" — but this time even she was sitting down. Playing as a stripped-down acoustic duo (drummer Jimmy P. Lightning was absent for this one) the pair zoned in even further in the folky drone at the heart of their songs. This piece was essayed on a recent cassette single with guest vocals from Ivy Mairi, but they were ably handled here by bassist Lucas Gadke (also showing off his banjo skills).

[You can see some footage from this set over at Brandon Caswell Douglas' Intersection playlist.]

Recording: Völur

Artist: Völur

Songs: Idisemorgen (reduction)^* + Es wächst aus seinem Grab

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), November 17, 2016.

Völur - Idisemorgen (reduction)

Völur - Es wächst aus seinem Grab

A slightly audacious pick to headline the season's first Emergents show, this demonstrated some out-of-the-box thinking from curator Chelsea Shanoff. As loud as openers Wapiti were quiet, this cowled trio's doom-ish metal rumbled the sanctuary's walls a little. This trio sees Lucas Gadke (bass) and Laura C. Bates (violin) — who I also recently saw as part of Gates — joined by Do Make Say Think drummer Jimmy P. Lightning.

Giving a sense of occasion to what they called their "first and last sit-down show", they lead off with the acoustic drone/chamber piece heard here before cranking things up with songs from their recent tape (google translate helpfully tells me that "Es wächst aus seinem Grab" can be rendered as something like "it grows out of its grave") plus some new material. Far more "metal" than a typical night at The Music Gallery, this brought out a somewhat atypical crowd for the venue — hopefully a few of them will be inspired to come back and experience some other unlikely music there.

^* Thanks to the band for passing along the proper title to this piece!