Svart Folk 15 Items

Storyteller's two albums were released by Britain's then foremost folk label, Transatlantic, their eponymous debut LP in 1970, and their last will and testament, 'More Pages', in 1971. This Svart reissue of 'More Pages' comes after the successful reissue of the band's debut album last year, and this one is likewise restricted to 500 copies on black vinyl.

'More Pages' has been hard to find as a full album, because the Storyteller CD reissue consists of the full first album and only a portion of the second.

No longer confined to being coveted by collectors and those in the know, this lush remastered reissue via Svart Records comes on gatefold vinyl with updated liner notes and interview. If you treasure Folk, Prog and Psychedelic Rock, make sure this is a tale you don’t miss out on!

Limited Svart exclusive box set edition. The demo LP will not be available separately.

Hexvessel and Svart Records celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Hexvessel’s debut album Dawnbearer with a set of reissues, including CD, double vinyl plus an exclusive vinyl box set with a bonus LP containing demos and early versions of tracks on the album.

“Dawnbearer is a very important album for us, being our first album but also the first original album release for Svart Records. It’s also a very special record for our fans, and one that’s particularly close to my heart, in a world of its own when compared to the other records we have made. Considering that it’s been out of print now for some time, I’m delighted to be able to oversee a reissue of this album, together with original demos and out-takes, and liner notes showing the making of this album which carries the initial DNA of Hexvessel’s musical and spiritual journey”, says band leader Mat McNerney, “We haven’t touched a thing on the original layout, but added some bonus material for the limited edition, should you wish to own a luxury edition of this, our now classic debut.”

Hexvessel band was founded by English singer/songwriter Mat McNerney (Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures, Carpenter Brut etc) after he moved to Finland in 2009. Their style of music has been referred to as “forest folk” or as Noisey/Vice puts it: “Weaving English folk, lilting Americana, and mushroom-induced psychedelia”. Their debut album 'Dawnbearer' was released worldwide in 2011 on Svart Records and is considered to be an influential classic record of the modern Occult Rock revival. Highly popular with Hexvessel fans and unique in their catalogue, featuring guitars by Andrew McIvor (Code), violin work of Daniel Pioro (who works on Paul Thomas Anderson’s soundtracks with Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead), the early production work of Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost), and guest vocals from Carl Michael Eide (Virus, Ved Buens Ende, Aura Noir).

“Think Woven Hand, haunted ’60s/’70s pastoral folk, or a darker riff on Midlake. McNerney covers Clive Palmer’s post-Incredible String Band crew C.O.B. and successfully transforms and darkens Paul Simon’s “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.” He quotes Crowley, Truman Capote, Isaac Babel, etc. Unlike black metal-ready folk, this is folk by a talented, ambitious black metal musician. But the energy’s there. As is the atmosphere.” - Stereogum

“(Part of) a new wave of bands who share many of the original occult bands' musical and philosophical characteristics, spearheaded by Ghost, from Sweden, and the Devil's Blood, from Holland – have begun to lure in a new generation of fans, predominantly from the metal scene, their names alone – Ancient VVisdom, Hexvessel, Blood Ceremony– point to a focused step back to the age of Wheatley and Hammer. ” - The Guardian (2011)

Bob Wayne lives and breathes both country music and punk rock, and has worked with a very diverse cast of artists in his career, from Hank Williams III to Exodus. A true outlaw and a DIY spirit, he is incessantly on tour or working on new music. Some years ago he got signed by a metal label, being the first country artist on Century Media.

This album, Outlaw Carnies, was Wayne’s debut for Century Media/People Like You in 2011. Long sold out on vinyl, Svart Records are happy to present an authorised vinyl reissue, available on classic black and limited dirty swamp green wax.

Bob Wayne lives and breathes both country music and punk rock, and has worked with a very diverse cast of artists in his career, from Hank Williams III to Exodus. A true outlaw and a DIY spirit, he is incessantly on tour or working on new music. Some years ago he got signed by a metal label, being the first country artist on Century Media.

This album, Outlaw Carnies, was Wayne’s debut for Century Media/People Like You in 2011. Long sold out on vinyl, Svart Records are happy to present an authorised vinyl reissue, available on classic black and limited dirty swamp green wax.

Black vinyl, insert

Green Lung are “Britain’s finest folk horror -indebted heavy metalers” (The Guardian), and this is where it all started for the band in 2018. The five track demo recording Free The Witch, including the bonus track When The Axe Comes Down, now reissued on standalone vinyl.

Remastered for vinyl by the spectacular John Davis (Lana Del Rey, Led Zeppelin, Royal Blood…) at Metropolis Studios in the UK and adorned by striking covert art by the band’s perennial collaborator Richard Wells.

To speak to Trevenial, the single-entity, multi-instrumentalist voice from the other side of the veil, is to speak to a spirit that transcends the veil of this world and crosses borders beyond time and place. But you will not speak to Trevenial, but hear the words put forth in Ianai. Ianai is the essence of music that will permeate culture and influence without thought of boundaries or convention. Ianai is mythos in the making.

With not much known of Trevenial’s identity or nature, Ianai’s music is imbued with flavors from indigenous musical cultures around the globe and clothed in darkly hued indie moods. Acting as a messenger between two worlds and Ianai is music carried from within through the ages. Now is the time to let the waking world hear it too.

From the first outset of the debut musical offering Sunir and the first single “Savoj Icoil”, Ianai abandons the typical notions of ice and frost in which it is depicted, and rather than desolation, offers a guiding force through the notes and words. While the physical manifestation of this album has been years in the making, Ianai decided to pierce the veil during a time when the world was imprisoned and suffering unimaginable loss.

As the album progresses, listeners transcend through the instrumentation of Scandinavia, Africa, Asia, Middle East and South America. And while Ianai walks a long path, winding through the earth, Ianai does not walk alone, but seeks to share and learn, collaborate and conceive, music and art. From celestial harmonies to earthly delights, Ianai’s music is a reflection of both the worldly and otherworldly. Channeled through the vessel of the spirit Trevenial, the music voices in tongues long forgotten, singing the songs of the sons of God and the daughters of men. In a language unspoken on this plane, yet unmistakable in its meaning, Ianai embodies the freedom we seek and the ability to achieve that fluidity.

In his music, Ianai is joined by a cohort of musicians from the world music scene and classical orchestras but also people from modern bands such as: Massive Attack (uk), Client (uk), HIM (Finland), Sisters Of Mercy (uk), Theodor Bastard (Russia), Lord Of The Lost (Germany), Swallow the Sun (Finland), Souvenir Season (Germany) and The Rasmus (Finland).

The album Sunir will be released on June 6th on Svart Records. The album is produced by Jaani Peuhu (Swallow The Sun, Iconcrash, Mercury Circle) and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studios (Ghost, Ulver, Paradise Lost).

From a time before time; before the ocean swallowed Atlantis and the named gods sat atop their mountains. When the ancient ones roamed free, unburdened, Ianai whispers through the boundary of legends.

With Sunir on the horizon, the question that remains is: when you hear Ianai, will you heed the call?

To speak to Trevenial, the single-entity, multi-instrumentalist voice from the other side of the veil, is to speak to a spirit that transcends the veil of this world and crosses borders beyond time and place. But you will not speak to Trevenial, but hear the words put forth in Ianai. Ianai is the essence of music that will permeate culture and influence without thought of boundaries or convention. Ianai is mythos in the making.

With not much known of Trevenial’s identity or nature, Ianai’s music is imbued with flavors from indigenous musical cultures around the globe and clothed in darkly hued indie moods. Acting as a messenger between two worlds and Ianai is music carried from within through the ages. Now is the time to let the waking world hear it too.

From the first outset of the debut musical offering Sunir and the first single “Savoj Icoil”, Ianai abandons the typical notions of ice and frost in which it is depicted, and rather than desolation, offers a guiding force through the notes and words. While the physical manifestation of this album has been years in the making, Ianai decided to pierce the veil during a time when the world was imprisoned and suffering unimaginable loss.

As the album progresses, listeners transcend through the instrumentation of Scandinavia, Africa, Asia, Middle East and South America. And while Ianai walks a long path, winding through the earth, Ianai does not walk alone, but seeks to share and learn, collaborate and conceive, music and art. From celestial harmonies to earthly delights, Ianai’s music is a reflection of both the worldly and otherworldly. Channeled through the vessel of the spirit Trevenial, the music voices in tongues long forgotten, singing the songs of the sons of God and the daughters of men. In a language unspoken on this plane, yet unmistakable in its meaning, Ianai embodies the freedom we seek and the ability to achieve that fluidity.

In his music, Ianai is joined by a cohort of musicians from the world music scene and classical orchestras but also people from modern bands such as: Massive Attack (uk), Client (uk), HIM (Finland), Sisters Of Mercy (uk), Theodor Bastard (Russia), Lord Of The Lost (Germany), Swallow the Sun (Finland), Souvenir Season (Germany) and The Rasmus (Finland).

The album Sunir will be released on June 6th on Svart Records. The album is produced by Jaani Peuhu (Swallow The Sun, Iconcrash, Mercury Circle) and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studios (Ghost, Ulver, Paradise Lost).

From a time before time; before the ocean swallowed Atlantis and the named gods sat atop their mountains. When the ancient ones roamed free, unburdened, Ianai whispers through the boundary of legends.

With Sunir on the horizon, the question that remains is: when you hear Ianai, will you heed the call?

Black vinyl Tuomas A. Laitinen’s debut album Sapiduz is a shapeshifting spectre containing traces of early music, mutated vocals, and granular electronic composition techniques. The album process started when Laitinen commissioned samples from vocalist Milla Mäkinen and created compositional tools out of this material. Sapiduz is like medieval music played on an interstellar journey, creating both absurd and chimeric combinations of sounds and moods. Analogous to Laitinen’s other works as an artist, the album is an entanglement of symbiotic processes and worldbuilding where the (mythical) past is attuned to submit questions about emerging futures. Sapiduz is a sibling to Laitinen’s installation in the 2021 Helsinki Biennial. The online part of this artwork contains an ambient 24h radio station transmitted every full moon until the end of 2021. In the radio station ΨFM, a fluid music technology Bronze AI is utilised to create a neverending composition from the same root samples used in Sapiduz. This generative system is steered with the logic of mRNA codons. The album’s title is a word for a bee in the medieval polymath Hildegard of Bingen’s constructed language Lingua Ignota. Tuomas A. Laitinen is an artist who works with sound, glass, and video installation. Laitinen composes situations and installations that inquire into the porous interconnectedness of language, body, and matter within morphing ecosystems. Album is released on Öm-sound label curated by Timo Kaukolampi, and distributed by Svart Records.

A Svart Mondo release. Black vinyl, gatefold jacket.

First released by Britain’s then foremost folk label, Transatlantic Records in 1970, Storyteller’s first album is a forgotten gem of Psychedelic Folk Prog Rock. Warm and silky production courtesy of Andrew Bown and Peter Frampton, fabulous dual vocals and a wistful arrangement of top-drawer UK Folk Prog, make Storyteller a diamond worth digging into.

Around 1969, after being a part of the band The Other Two on Decca Records, working with people like Chuck Berry, Duane Eddy and Jerry Lee Lewis, and touring with Chuck Berry and The Animals, Caroline Attard joined a new band that was being formed; Storyteller. A quintet who followed their own inclination, ignoring current fashions and just doing what seemed to come naturally, Storyteller is a crate-digger’s delight. Up there with Fairport Convention, Jefferson Airplane and Steeleye Span, Storyteller were steeped in folklore tales such as on ‘Ballad Of The Three Laps’, bringing the true spirit of folk alive in their own unique way. With songs written primarily by Roger Moon, and Terry Durham as muse of inspiration with his paintings and wonderful Yorkshire stories, Storyteller’s debut has the authentic and honest vibe of the real McCoy.

No longer confined to being coveted by collectors and those in the know, this lush remastered reissue via Svart Records comes on gatefold vinyl with updated liner notes and interview. If you treasure Folk, Prog and Psychedelic Rock, make sure this is a tale you don’t miss out on!

Hexvessel and Svart Records celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Hexvessel’s debut album Dawnbearer with a set of reissues, including CD, double vinyl plus an exclusive vinyl box set with a bonus LP containing demos and early versions of tracks on the album. “Dawnbearer is a very important album for us, being our first album but also the first original album release for Svart Records. It’s also a very special record for our fans, and one that’s particularly close to my heart, in a world of its own when compared to the other records we have made. Considering that it’s been out of print now for some time, I’m delighted to be able to oversee a reissue of this album, together with original demos and out-takes, and liner notes showing the making of this album which carries the initial DNA of Hexvessel’s musical and spiritual journey”, says band leader Mat McNerney, “We haven’t touched a thing on the original layout, but added some bonus material for the limited edition, should you wish to own a luxury edition of this, our now classic debut.” Hexvessel band was founded by English singer/songwriter Mat McNerney (Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures, Carpenter Brut etc) after he moved to Finland in 2009. Their style of music has been referred to as “forest folk” or as Noisey/Vice puts it: “Weaving English folk, lilting Americana, and mushroom-induced psychedelia”. Their debut album ‘Dawnbearer’ was released worldwide in 2011 on Svart Records and is considered to be an influential classic record of the modern Occult Rock revival. Highly popular with Hexvessel fans and unique in their catalogue, featuring guitars by Andrew McIvor (Code), violin work of Daniel Pioro (who works on Paul Thomas Anderson’s soundtracks with Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead), the early production work of Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost), and guest vocals from Carl Michael Eide (Virus, Ved Buens Ende, Aura Noir).

Rural legend and outsider folk artist H.C Slim had amassed quite a catalog of original songs he's demoed on a tape recorder, deep in the Eastern Finnish countryside. Over the years cassettes and CDRs began to circulate with original copies selling for high prices, before Svart Records drove out to his remote cabin to offer Slim a deal for his debut album.