Gjallarhorn (pronounced "yal-lair-horn") features world music with roots in the folk music of Finland. The quartet was born in 1994. The band's music echoes the ancient folk music tradition of Scandinavia with medieval ballads, minuets, prayers in runo-metric chanting and ancient Icelandic rímur epics in a modern way.

The Music

The band is Finnish, but hails from a Swedish-speaking area on the Swedish speaking area of Finland, West Coast of Finland (Ostrobothnia), a fringe geographical area where 50% of the people speak Swedish.

The music of the band remains Swedish in character. Most of their repertoire is the acoustic folk music of these Swedish-speaking Finns, from the unique minuets and ballads that have only survived in Ostrobothnia, to the old traditional waltzes. The didgeridoo offers an underlying drone, a technique shared by some other Nordic bands such as Garmarna. The music of Gjallarhorn is still much mellower and dreamy than Garmarna's.

The narrative of Gjallarhorn's songs spring primarily from Nordic mythology. The Gjallarhorn is the horn with which the gatekeeper god, Heimdal, sent messages from the gods of Asgård to the mortals of Midgård. The name of the horn is related to the word gjala, which means "to shout" or "to sing out."

Band members

The current members of the band are:

• Petter Berndalen , percussion.
• Adrian Jones , viola, mandola, kalimba.
• Tommy Mansikka-Aho, didgeridoo, slideridoo and Jew's harp.
• Jenny Wilhelms, vocals, fiddle and hardangerfiddle.

Discography

Albums

• Ranarop, 2003
• Sjofn , 2001
• Grimborg , 2000

Similar bands and artists

• Garmarna
• Hedningarna
• Loituma
• Sanna Kurki-Suonio or Sanna
• Värttinä
• Väsen

External links

• The official Gjallarhorn website
• Gjallarhorn "Sjofn" at Musical Discoveries
• Andrew Cronshaw talks with Gjallarhorn (1996)
• Northside artist presentation