BJARKAN - The Sound of Before and Now
ABOUT BJARKAN
A Neo/Nordic Folk Project
When I started out as a musician/composer I was mainly working on short films and the projects I did in between were of a very ambient and experimental nature - lots of synths, drones and drawn out pads combined with soft pianos and strings.
Throughout the years, I experimented a lot with my style, both as a film composer and as a musician, but there was always one genre/type of music that I always wanted to create: Nordic Folk.
It took many years, but back in 2022, I finally reached a point in my musical career where I felt confident enough to finally give it a go - that's when the work on my first album Ragnarok started in earnest.
At the same time, I was also forced to do a hard reset on my musical work due a very sudden hard drive failure that led to the loss of a lot of work. One could even say that this event served as my own personal Ragnarok: the end of everything, but also the start of something new.
After this, I solely focused on Ragnarok and Nordic Folk music and things just felt right.
So I continued and it quickly became apparent to me that this is exactly what I wanted to focus on as a musician.
Then, throughout 2023, I also realized that at some point, I would need to separate my new work from my old at some point and so, after a lot of thinking and planning, BJARKAN was born.
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The Berkanan rune b, (Elder Futhark; Bjarkan in Younger Futhark, Beorc in Futhorc) stands for, amongst other things, growth and rebirth, a fitting meaning for a project that was in a way my own revival as a musician.
It also translates to "birch", which in German would be "Birke". Now simply remove that "e" and you're left with "Birk" - my name.
So the name just felt right.
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But now, what exactly is this project? What am I even making and creating?
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In short, I create music that nestles itself best within the genre of Neo and Nordic Folk music and is very much inspired by and rooted within Norse Mythology and Norse culture.
My aim with this music is to give a new voice to the ancient mythology, to the poems and runes that have endured over the centuries, to craft melodies and rhythms that evoke emotion, memories and lets us connect to our past and to channel the sounds and the beauty of nature itself, from lush forests and the rustling of trees to the calming sounds of the waves breaking on the shore.
The Creative Cores Behind Bjarkan
What drives this project?
IMMERSION
Even before, but especially after I created "Helgisi​ð​ur - The Ritual", I made it my goal to create musical experiences that , through both the music itself as well as the sound design/soundscaping built around it, are able to fully immerse the listener within the world and the stories of those tracks.
My goal is that you, as a listener, should be as connected and close to the music as I am as its creator.
EXPERIMENTATION
I've always loved experimenting with sounds, music and instruments to try and create unique and new things and within the realm of my Nordic Folk music, I am able to craft much more strange and "out there" sounds. Sampling vocal work, objects of any kind or just natural ambience and transforming these into new, mystical and interesting new sounds is a part of every project I have released so far.
This process has lead to the creation of several "instruments" that I now use for a lot of my songs, such as a percussion kit made out of the sounds of wooden sticks and branches or the ancient growling noises of the World Serpent, which uses a squeaky coffee grinder as its base.
STORYTELLING
Coming from a background in scoring for film, a big aspect of my work has always been to create music that directly connects to a narrative, represents themes and characters and uses instruments and melodies as a way to reinforce and highlight moments and specific actions.
When I started working on my first album Ragnarok, I wanted to approach like I would any film score: by building themes for the story, the characters and the defining moments of the original poem.
Since then, the themes and motifs established within that album have served me as a tapestry that weaves itself throughout all of my Nordic Folk music, ever evolving and expanding, but forever rooted within the core themes that have been established for them.
„á›’ Bjarkan er laufgat lim
ok lítit tré
ok ungsamligr viðr.”
„Birch is a leafy twig
and little tree
and fresh young shrub.”