I have Swedish artist Tomarum AKA Christine Linde to thank for today’s Sound Of The Day, as she tagged the musician Helga in a recent post on Instagram. I couldn’t resist tapping into Google and going down the dark path to find Helga’s Bandcamp page, as I had a feeling I would discover something really special.
Hailing from the forests of Dalarna, Sweden, Helga writes music from the confines of her cabin. Living in the wilderness with just her guitar for company has given her songwriting a unique sense of introspection. Helga tells us that the new songs are “a musical translation of my inner and physical world. I personally love reverb-drenched music and sounds, drawing inspiration from my dream world, the misty forests, and Swedish folk music.”
The record hits its heaviest peak on ‘Haunted’, with an ominous intro giving way to mighty Mastodon-style guitars and sinister, macabre lyrics. Dark and light battle it out with Helga’s honeyed vocals sitting on top of diabolical riffs and polyrhythmic grooves.
Latest single ‘In The Wilderness’ reflects on the state of the natural world from the perspective of someone that spends their life close to nature. In a time when the environment is ever more under threat, it’s only natural that meditation upon the state of the world, while full of beauty, is tinged with darkness and melancholy.
Drawing upon a wide range of influences from post-rock and metal to folk & classical, Helga propagates a unique sense of melancholy. Elsewhere on the EP on ‘Battle Song’, pounding tribal drums are juxtaposed with mournful vocals and washes of guitar noise – with its roots as much in black metal as modern pop music.
– Helga (Bandcamp)
I sampled the tracks from her EP Nebulous, and found that I was repeatedly drawn back to the short but perfectly formed and utterly haunting Vintervisa. Battle Song is also exquisite.
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 