(engl. version below)

Echoes of North“ ist das Debütalbum von Christine Kammerer, mit der ich mich vor ein paar Tagen über ihren Weg zur Musik und zur Entstehung des Albums gesprochen habe.

Sie ist in einer musikalischen Familie aufgewachsen, hat einen Hintergrund nicht nur in klassischer Musik, sondern auch im Heavy Metal. Im Laufe der Zeit hat sie sich immer mehr mit Folk-Musik auseinandergesetzt. Sie gründete die Band JOTUNGER, die sie als ihr „Dark-Folk-Projekt“ bezeichnet.

Christine Kammerer war schon früh von den Klängen keltischer Volksmusik begeistert. Volksmusik war in ihrer Familie ein wichtiges Element. So komponierte ihr Großvater, der aus Bayern stammte, auch Volksmusik. In Dänemark aufgewachsen kennt sie die dänische/nordische Volksmusik. Sie spezialisierte sich während des Studiums der Musikwissenschaft und vergleichenden Kulturwissenschaft auf frühe nordische Musik / Musik aus der sg. Wikingerzeit. So begann sie auch, sich mit den alten musikalischen und kulturellen Verbindungen zwischen Skandinavien und Schottland zu beschäftigen

Die Verbundenheit der skandinavischen und schottischen Klanglandschaften

Das Album „Echoes of North“ macht die Verbundenheit und die gemeinsamen musikalischen Wurzeln zwischen Skandinavien und Schottland hörbar und erlebbar.
Christine Kammerer geht es auch hier um Musik als Bindeglied, Kommunikationsmöglichkeit und Vermittler zwischen Menschen, verschiedenen Kulturen, Vergangenheit und Gegenwart.
Sie hat mit dem Album, dessen 10 Lieder auf Dänisch, Englisch und Gälisch gesungen werden, den Eigenheiten der skandinavischen so wie der schottisch-gälischen Musik ebenso viel Raum gelassen wie den Gemeinsamkeiten. Sie hat diese Elemente so zusammengefügt, dass sie ineinanderfließen und neue, wunderschöne Melodien und Lieder entstanden sind.
Unterstützt wurde sie dabei von Musikern aus Dänemark, Schottland und Norwegen. Musiker, die vorher noch nie zusammengespielt haben. Sie haben die Idee hinter den Liedern aufgegriffen und umgesetzt, indem sie den Melodien nach ihrem Verständnis spielen und den Liedern damit diesen ganz speziellen Charakter verliehen haben.

Echoes of North – Lieder auf Dänisch, Gälisch und Englisch

Das Album beginnt mit „I Dag Bryder Lyset Frem“ (Heute bricht das Licht hervor). Klavier und Geige leiten das Lied ein. Zunächst zurückhaltend und doch intensiv singt Christine von dunklen Momenten, die es in unserem Leben gibt. Davon, dass es ob so scheint, als ob sie das Leben bestimmen. Dann werden Stimme und Instrumente intensiver und erzählen überzeugt von der Hoffnung, dass dieses Kapitel enden und ein neues beginnen wird. Dass etwas kommen wird, wie ein Licht, das sich seinen Weg durch die Dunkelheit bricht.
Das Chorarrangement und vor allen Dingen dieser wunderbare Wechsel der Stimmlage, wenn das Licht („Lys“) besungen wird, zeigen die Zuversicht, ohne die Trauer über die dunklen Momente zu verschweigen.

Bereits in diesem Lied zeigt sich, was sich thematisch wie ein roter Faden durch das Album zieht: traurige, schwere, dunkle Momente gehören zu unserem Leben. Aber es gibt immer wieder diese stärkenden Augenblicke in denen ‚das Licht hervorbricht‘ und man sich wohlfühlt, sich zuhause, angenommen und angekommen fühlt. Und auch wenn ein Nachhall des Vergangenen bleibt, ist es möglich, etwas hinter sich zu lassen

Lieder vom Nach-Hause-Kommen

„Daffodils“ hat wunderschöne Melodien in Gesang und den Geigen. Er ist einerseits ein Folksong mit harmonischen Strukturen und einer Melodie, die eingängig ist und zum Mitsingen einlädt. Das Arrangement unterstreicht es durch Sequenzen, die leicht sind und zum Tanz einladen. Dennoch ist es mehr. Das Arrangement ist dicht und bietet beim wiederholten Hören viele Entdeckungen. Man merkt, dass die Musiker ihr Verständnis des Liedes umgesetzt haben.
Es ist ein wunderschönes Lied über Ereignisse, die in Erinnerung bleiben und uns in traurigen Momenten mit Freude erfüllen können. Der Reichtum schöner Erinnerungen.

Sehnsuchtsvolles Geigenspiel und Gesang prägen „Carry Me Home“. Christines Stimme ist eindringlich und schwebend zugleich. Es klingt, als ob sie uns an einen verborgenen, mystischen Ort mitnehmen will. Und vielleicht ist Nach-Hause-Kommen manchmal so, als ob man einen bis dahin verborgenen Ort findet.

Teach me the way of wind so I can flow
Lead me well and watch me grow
Carry me Home

Christine Kammerer

Klagelieder

Es folgen drei Lieder, die ich als zusammengehörend empfinde. Es geht um Klage, Abschied und Hoffnung.

„Mythical Lamentation 1“ wird lediglich durch die Stimme und die teifen, tragenden Töne des Organistrum gestaltet. Ein ergreifendes Stück.

Diese Grundstruktur wird in „Sol Står Stille“ weitergeführt. Der dänisch gesungene Text ist schön in seiner Bildsprache. Die Melodie und das Arrangement ermöglichen verschiedene Facetten der Klage. Das Lied klingt archaisch in der Melodieführung und im Arrangement mit Organistrum, Geige  und mehrstimmigem Gesang. Der Mittelteil mit lautmalerischem Gesang ist ein Gänsehautmoment.

„Mystical Lamentation2“ geht ebenfalls unter die Haut. Klavier, Geige, Cello,Tagelharpa und Gemshorn spielen ihre Klage und lassen am Ende wieder Hoffnung und Ruhe einkehren.

Mittelalterliches Dänisch in nordischen Runen

Und nun folgt „Drømte mig en drøm & Mermaids Croon“, das die Intention des Albums, den Gemeinsamkeiten skandinavischer und schottisch-gälischer Musik eine neue Form zu geben, umsetzt. „Drømte Mig en Drøm“ ist das älteste bekannte dänische Volkslied. Der Text ist mit nordischen Runen in mittelalterlichem Dänisch geschrieben .  „Mermaids Croon“ (Crònan na maighdinn-mhara) ist ein gälisches Volkslied. Wenn man auf die Musik hört, würde man wohl nicht auf die Idee kommen, dass es sich um zwei Lieder handelt. Christine Kammerer hat hier die Essenz der Lieder zu Klängen zusammengeführt, die zeigen, wie nah sich die Ausdrucksformen sind. So klingt es, wenn nordische Musik mit unterschiedlichen Wurzeln ihren Widerhall findet.
Erzählend klar und dann wieder sirenenhaft klingt die Stimme. Das Arrangement ist zart und die alten Instrumente erzeugen einen warmen Klang, in dem ich mich zuhause fühle.

„Sig Nærmer Tiden“ ist eines der Lieder, das mich nicht nur an Musik aus dem Norden erinnert, sondern auch an Volkslieder aus anderen Kulturkreisen. Ob es an der Melodie, der Melancholie des Liedes, das von der Flüchtigkeit des Lebens und von Abschied singt, liegt?

„In The Old Town“ ist wie eine Liebeserklärung an einen vertrauten Platz, der Sicherheit und der Seele Ruhe bietet. Wieder geht es um Zu-Hause-Sein, dem Thema, das Christine Kammerer sich von verschiedenen Seiten genähert hat. Immer intensiv, mit Bildern, die in jedem ein Echo hervorrufen werden – wie immer er Zuhause für sich versteht oder wünscht.

Schläfst du, während der Sturm tobt?

Mit „Jeg Kender Et Danmark“ endet das Album. Es ist ein kraftvoller Song, der davon handelt, für das einzustehen, was einem wichtig ist. Sie singt zwar von Dänemark – aber hier kann jeder den Namen seines Landes einfügen. Denn Ideale wie Gleichwertigkeit, Gerechtigkeit, Fürsorge sind doch die Säulen jeder Gemeinschaft, die beachtet und geschützt werden müssen.
Auch hier gefällt mir die Verschmelzung verschiedener Elemente. Z.B. wie der Dudelsack eingesetzt wird und sich mit den anderen Instrumenten und Melodien zu einem Klangbild zusammenfügt. 

Echoes of North – Widerhall des Alten im Neuen

Christine Kammerers Intention, die gemeinsamen Wurzeln der Musik Skandinaviens und Schottlands aufzuzeigen und zusammenzuführen, ist mit diesem Album gelungen. Dabei konnte sie mit Musikern aus Schottland, Dänemark und Norwegen zusammenarbeiten, die dies aufgegriffen und in ihrer Art umgesetzt haben. Dies macht den besonderen Charakter des Albums aus. Es zeigt auch, dass Musik und Emotionen eine universelle Sprache sind, und dass es Geschichten und Themen gibt, die in allen Kulturen eine Rolle spielen.

Die Instrumente und Melodien, Christines beindruckend vielseitige Stimme sind dabei wie Fäden einer Stickerei. Sie sind einzeln erkennbar und ergeben zusammen ein Motiv. Wenn man den Liedern zuhört, klingt Bekanntes und Neues an. Es gibt viel zu entdecken – und nicht nur für Folk-Fans!

Neben Christine Kammerer (Gesang, Klavier) waren mit dabei:
Adam McKenzie (Dänemark): Cello
Alison McNeill (Schottland): Geige
Fiona McNeill (Schottland): Gitarre und Bodhrans
Scott Figgins (Schottland): Dudelsack
Hans Christian Molbech (Dänemark): Flöte und Gemshorn
Christian Mohr Levisen (Dänemark): Drehleier und Tagelharpa
Kjell Braaten (Norwegen); Organistrum

Produziert und gemischt wurde das Album im Studio 1790 von Gavin Paterson (Schottland) und gemastert von Kjell Braaten Music (Norwegen).

Das Album „Echoes of North“ findet ihr HIER

Und hier „Jeg Kender et Danmark“

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Christine Kammerer’s Debut Album „Echoes of North“ Release Date: June 7, 2024

„Echoes of North“ is the debut album by Christine Kammerer, with whom I recently spoke about her journey into music and the creation of the album.

She grew up in a musical family, with a background not only in classical music but also in heavy metal. Over time, she became increasingly involved with folk music. She founded the band JOTUNGER, which she describes as her „dark folk project.“
Christine Kammerer was captivated by the sounds of Celtic folk music from an early age. Folk music played a significant role in her family. Her grandfather, who was from Bavaria, also composed folk music. Growing up in Denmark, she is familiar with Danish/Nordic folk music. During her musicology and comparative cultural studies, she specialized in early Nordic music/music from the Viking Age. This led her to explore the ancient musical and cultural connections between Scandinavia and Scotland.

The Connection of Scandinavian and Scottish Soundscapes

The album „Echoes of North“ makes the connection and shared musical roots between Scandinavia and Scotland audible and tangible. Christine Kammerer emphasizes music as a link, a means of communication, and a mediator between people, of different cultures, past and present.

With the album, whose 10 songs are sung in Danish, English, and Gaelic, she has given space to both the distinctive features of Scandinavian and Scottish-Gaelic music as well as their commonalities. She has blended these elements so that they flow into each other, creating new, beautiful melodies and songs.

She was supported by musicians from Denmark, Scotland, and Norway—musicians who had never played together before. They embraced the idea behind the songs and implemented it by interpreting the melodies in their own way, giving the songs a unique character.

Echoes of North – Songs in Danish, Gaelic and English

The album begins with „I Dag Bryder Lyset Frem“ (Today the Light Breaks Forth). Piano and violin introduce the song. Initially restrained yet intense, Christine sings of dark moments in our lives that seem to dominate. Then the voice and instruments intensify, convincingly telling of hope that this chapter will end and a new one will begin, like a light breaking through the darkness.
The choral arrangement and, above all, the wonderful change in pitch when singing about the light („Lys“) convey hope without concealing the sorrow over dark moments.

Already in this song, a theme that runs through the album becomes apparent: sad, heavy, dark moments are part of our lives. But there are always these strengthening moments when ‚the light breaks forth‘ and one feels at home, accepted, and arrived. And even if an echo of the past remains, it is possible to leave something behind.

Songs of coming home

„Daffodils“ has beautiful melodies in the vocals and violins. It is both a folk song with harmonic structures and a catchy melody inviting sing-alongs. The arrangement highlights this with light sequences inviting dance. Yet, it is more. The dense arrangement offers many discoveries upon repeated listening. One notices that the musicians have interpreted the song with their understanding.
It is a beautiful song about events that remain in memory and can fill us with joy in sad moments. The richness of beautiful memories.

Longing violin playing and vocals characterize „Carry Me Home“. Christine’s voice is both compelling and ethereal. It sounds as if she wants to take us to a hidden, mystical place. And perhaps coming home is sometimes like finding a previously hidden place.

Teach me the way of wind so I can flow
Lead me well and watch me grow
Carry me Home

Christine Kammerer

Laments

Three songs follow that I feel belong together. They are about lament, farewell, and hope.

„Mythical Lamentation 1“ features only voice and the deep, resonant tones of the organistrum. An evocative piece.

This basic structure continues in „Sol Står Stille“. The Danish lyrics are beautiful in their imagery. The melody and arrangement allow for various facets of lamentation. The song sounds archaic in its melody and arrangement with organistrum, violin, and multi-voice singing. The middle section with onomatopoeic singing is a goosebumps moment.

„Mystical Lamentation 2“ also strikes deep. Piano, violin, cello, tagelharpa, and gemshorn play their lament, and hope and peace return at the end.

Medieval Danish in Nordic Runes

Next is „Drømte mig en drøm & Mermaids Croon“, which fulfils the album’s intention of giving a new form to the commonalities of Scandinavian and Scottish-Gaelic music. „Drømte Mig en Drøm“ is the oldest known Danish folk song. The text is written in Nordic runes in medieval Danish. „Mermaids Croon“ (Crònan na maighdinn-mhara) is a Gaelic folk song. Listening to the music, one would not think these are two separate songs. Christine Kammerer has merged the essence of the songs into sounds that show how close the forms of expression are. This is how it sounds when Nordic music with different roots finds its echo.
The voice sounds clear and narrative, then siren-like again. The arrangement is delicate, and the old instruments create a warm sound in which I feel at home.

„Sig Nærmer Tiden“ is one of the songs that reminds me not only of music from the north but also of folk songs from other cultural circles. Is it the melody, the melancholy of the song singing about the transience of life and farewell?

„In The Old Town“ is like a declaration of love to a familiar place that provides security and peace for the soul. Again, it is about being at home, a theme Christine Kammerer approaches from various angles. Always intense, with images that will evoke an echo in everyone—however they understand or wish for home.

Do You Sleep While the Storm Rages?

With „Jeg Kender Et Danmark“ the album ends. It is a powerful song about standing up for what is important to you. Although she sings about Denmark, anyone can insert the name of their own country here. After all, ideals like equality, justice, and care are the pillars of any community that must be respected and protected.
Here, too, I like the merging of various elements. For example, how the bagpipes are used and blend with the other instruments and melodies into a soundscape.

Echoes of North – The Reverberation of the Old in the New

Christine Kammerer’s intention to highlight and bring together the shared roots of Scandinavian and Scottish music has succeeded with this album. She was able to work with musicians from Scotland, Denmark, and Norway who embraced and implemented this in their own way. This gives the album its special character. It also shows that music and emotions are a universal language and that there are stories and themes that play a role in all cultures.
The instruments and melodies, Christine’s impressively versatile voice, are like threads in embroidery. They are individually recognizable and together create a motif. Listening to the songs, both familiar and new elements resonate. There is much to discover—and not just for folk fans!

Alongside Christine Kammerer (vocals, piano), the album features:
Adam McKenzie (Denmark): cello
Alison McNeill (Scotland): violin
Fiona McNeill (Scotland): guitar and bodhrans
Scott Figgins (Scottland): Bagpipe
Hans Christian Molbech (Denmark): flute and gemshorn
Christian Mohr Levisen (Denmark): hurdy-gurdy and tagelharpa
Kjell Braaten (Norway): organistrum

The album was produced and mixed at Studio 1790 by Gavin Paterson (Scotland) and mastered by Kjell Braaten Music (Norway).

You can find it HERE.

And now „Jeg Kender et Danmark“

Good morning, Christine, you released the album „Echoes of North“ last month. You’ve already got a lot of other things on the way before that. There have been many experiences, projects, concerts, ideas and development processes that I would like to talk to you about today.

How are you today?
I am good. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind for the past couple of months. I’m just about to go on tour, but it’ll be amazing. I can’t wait.

You will go on tour with “Whisky and Witches” or with your own songs and your new album?
In July I’ll go on tour in Denmark with my band JOTUNGER, and we just did a full band version of “Whisky and Witches” in Copenhagen with JOTUNGER and Alison McNeil and Fiona McNeil from my album. So with my dark folk project JOTUNGER I will have four Viking festivals in Denmark across July. And then in August, I’ll, we’ll have eight shows of “Whisky and Witches” at the Fringe in Edinburgh.

Wow. A lot to do. When preparing for the interview, I already thought there is a lot to talk about.You’re a singer and a composer, you play many instruments and have your Viking band, JOTUNGER, and you have been in the project “Raven Brings Runes”. And what I also like very much: you covered “The Dragonborn Comes”. And now you have your album “Echoes of North” and with “Whisky and Witches” an exciting idea for a whisky tasting.
As I got to know you through your music, I would like to start with some questions about your music first.

Her grandfather got her into playing music

How did you get into music? Are you from a musical family, or how did music become so important for you?
Well, yes, I come from a music family. And the reason why this interview is also quite important to me is that a lot of my family come from Bavaria, from Rosenheim. And it was my granddad who got me into playing music.
He was a folk musician and a composer as well. His name was Edwin Kammerer. He grew up in Rosenheim. Then he met my grandmother and moved to Denmark. They started a music school and I basically have lived at that music school. So I started playing piano when I was five or six and then started singing when I was around eight, got into a choir, had my first solo song when I was 11, which was yesterday. And then from there, I didn’t know how to not do music. So I studied music at high school and boarding school, what we in Denmark call Højskolen. I studied musical theatre, dance, singing. And then I went on to musicology at university.

What idea or intention did you have when you decided to study musicology?
 I’ve always been very taken by how music acts as an agent in society, what it can do to us interculturally and between, between people.

And your projects somehow all have to do with this idea.
Yes, I’ve done a lot of projects, and it has to do with how music creates bridges between different cultures and different people.

 And how did it come to make music your profession?
I think that’s one of the reasons why I studied musicology, because I always thought, I want to work with music.  But if I can’t live off performing, at least I want an academic background that allows me to work with it on a higher level and continue that work my entire life.

Have you often wondered whether this is possible?
Honestly, I went through a lot of doubting. But when I went out of university, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to curate cultural heritage through music.

 “Hi, can you play weird instruments and come and do that full-time?”

What ideas did you have?
I wanted to make history come alive with music and I wanted to tell stories. So in 2018, I went on quest to find some musicians who wanted to do a Viking music project with me. And, and that’s how I found the musicians for GJALDULEI. A couple of years ago we decided to go in different directions. And we restructured the band and renamed it JOTUNGER.
So I started that and then, because, you know, there’s not a museum that has a post that says, “Hi, can you play weird instruments and come and do that full-time?” So I needed to do that myself.

JOTUNGER is now one of the best-known Viking bands in Denmark.
Yes, we played quite a few times at the National Museum. And we play a lot of different festivals.

When did you start to write music?
I’ve been writing since I was 15. And I still got some of those old songs. It was everything from a couple of the first real performances with my own music I played was at a small venue, a small bar in Denmark. And it’s just me and my guitar, and I just played some songs from the EP that I released in 2020.

So you can’t do without music because you are full of music?
I don’t know how to not play music. It’s not something I do, it’s something I am. And it’s the way I relate to the world and how I create connections with people. And it feels like this is what I can give the world. And I will keep giving it as long as I have something in me.

I believe that all people have music in them in one way or another. And that music is a good way to communicate with others and feel connected.  And that musicians show how this is possible.  How it is possible to communicate and understand each other without words.
Yeah, I totally love the way you talk about it.

I would like to come back to your Viking band JOTUNGER. There are a lot of discussions about how Viking music sounds like. A lot of people think that we can’t say how it sounded.
We don’t know how it sounds and so on. But I think it’s not so important. It’s how I understand it.

Just as an archaeologist cannot always be one hundred per cent sure that what he thinks about the finds is correct?
Yes. My background is in ethnomusicology. It is to understand cultural and collective identity and how that’s discussed through music and how it’s communicated through music. So my approach to Viking Age music is qualified guesswork.
We’re weaving a tapestry or a mosaic of the different influences we can find. So part of it is immersing yourself in the culture. And that’s why Viking, participating in Viking festivals are such a big part of what we do. Often, we sit in the environments and play our instruments to see what comes out.

“Music is something I am “

Christine told about her specialization in the lyre and the use of natural instruments in cultural and ritual contexts. And about understanding music more as something you use for a specific purpose rather than entertainment, even if it was entertainment. She collects old Scandinavian folk songs and continues her research in Scotland, where she plans a journey to the Shetland and Orkney Islands to study Norse, Celtic, and Pictish cultures.She explores old music traditions and scales, sometimes  based on bone flute findings, incorporating these influences into her music. When composing, she intuitively feels when the music is right.

She said: “If I try to force it into being something it’s not, I close. If it feels right, I open and I can lean into it. I had a song that I wrote last year at Moesgård Viking Moot in Aarhus, Denmark, and I was paid four pieces of amber to write music for a ship that was about to set out to sea. And I sat down at the beach, and I looked at the ship and I felt into. Okay, so what kind of spirits and gods and goddesses do you have to invoke to stay safe on a ship like that? Then I thought about, there’s an old folk song from Shetland that is a combination of Old Norse and a dialect from Shetland. And I thought, okay, what are they telling in that? Well, they’re singing about them having to be aware and how they need to navigate the ship. And then I thought, okay, if I build on that with some Norse gods, then I wrote the song in an hour, I think.”

She has also been working with the Scottish Crannog Centre in Kenmore and wrote songs for the opening.

Empowerment through music

Another project she is proud of is Joyous Choir, that emerged from an integration project. Women from different countries who sang together, literally just used their voice to communicate and convey feeling about things we all have in common as human beings: love, connection, community, home, and belonging.

Christine told about it: “And then I took all of those recordings and I picked out the different tonal structures that went through it and brought together a composition that we performed at the opening of the Scottish Crannog Centre. It’s called “Becoming Anew”. And it was stunning.”

It must be incredible to witness people coming together like this.
Yes, it was incredible to see how some of these women grew just by doing this composition. They took ownership over it. Even we couldn’t talk to each other properly, it brought us together and they just stood there in full force.

So, it is a kind of empowerment.
Yes, it makes people feel home when they are outside of their own country, of their own culture, that they know that they have this power that they can take things in their own hands. And in music, you can show it. You don’t have to talk about it. You can show it and they can feel it.

With JOTUNGER we did our take of Viking music

But back to JOTUNGER. You will do a lot more shows with them. And the idea behind it is like to retain cultural heritage. Did I get it right?           Yeah, definitely. There are many interpretations of Viking music. And with JOTUNGER we did our take on it. We’ve recorded an entire album that. So that’s going to be out this autumn and hopefully we’ll have a single out very soon as well. And we’ll do another one, I think, quite quickly after that, because part of what we do is Viking music, but part of it is something completely different, a lot more dark folk. And almost musical theatre, crossing over to classical or symphonic music folk. And we have an ambition to put heavy metal into the mix of that as well.

You will have Heavy Metal in it?
So, yeah, I used to play heavy metal when I was in my early 20s. I’m a huge metalhead. And I was in a symphonic metal band for four years. And I loved it. And I need to get back to the roots of doing that.Some of this can also be heard in the song „Jeg Kender Et Danmark“ on the new album. Not really heavy metal but that kind of, you know, edge.

A deep diving in traditional folk and grandfather’s influence

On “Echoes of North” you have a lot of beautiful songs. The fusion on Nordic and Celtic music and the storytelling is something new in a way. How did it come to you to do this fusion of Nordic and Celtic music?
Yeah, well, the Celtic has been a part of me for such a long time. And what I wanted to demonstrate there was how close our tonalities are to each other. The song “Dr​ø​mte Mig en Dr​ø​m & Mermaid’s Croon” is a fusion of the oldest Danish folk song and a Gaelic song. Two different songs brought together.
And I think that Scotland and Ireland as well, that type of Celtic music has been part of my life since I was 13, 14. I remember I got the first, the first Celtic Circle CD when I was 13 or 14. I bought it and listened to it five times or something. When I got older, I found Enya, Loreena McKennitt and a lot of others.  And then I started to dive deeper into traditional folk, Irish and Scottish folk

How did this music influence your style of writing music?
Yes, listening to all that Celtic music very much influenced my own style of writing from an early age, but also the way that my granddad wrote. There was something in that when I listened to Celtic music and the compositions that my granddad wrote, I thought there’s some interconnections here that I didn’t notice before.

Can you describe, what kind of connection it was?
My grandfather had arranged a simple melody, a very Nordic sounding thing. If you put a couple of notes on it, it instantly becomes more Celtic. Once you know it, it’s so easy to weave with and play with.
And I think the more I did Viking music, the more I did my own style of writing, which was very, very Celtic music-y. I wanted, one of the reasons I wanted to move to Scotland was to walk in the footsteps of the Vikings from Denmark and Norway in Scotland and in Ireland as well. So it feels like I started scratching the surface of it.

You worked with musicians from Scotland for your album. How did they react to your ideas and compositions?
Yes, I met some amazing Celtic traditional musicians. And I wonder what will happen if I put the Nordic rooted and Celtic rooted things I’ve done into the hands of them. How will they approach it? That was the whole idea behind the album.
And you know, Birgit, the musicians have never played together before they met in studio. I wanted to see what happens, without any bias, without any, what will you bring to this? And it was like we just breathe from the same set of lungs to some degree.

What happens if you put Nordic rooted music into the hand of Celtic musicians

That must have been a great experience.
We weave from the same fabric, just with different colours from different cultures that then have influenced each other in different ways. I almost become emotional talking about this because it’s, especially in a world like today, where it seems like everything’s falling apart a bit. People are getting more and more violent with each other.

Yes, it’s as if something like fragmentation is happening everywhere. Seeing differences is important. But we must not lose sight of what we have in common.
We are dividing each other more and more. Creating these small pockets where we come together, whether that was with the album, whether that was with what I did with the Joyous Choir, gives you hope. It allows you to breathe into a belief in humanity.

Was this thought part of the motivation for the album?
And that’s very much what I wanted to demonstrate with “Echoes of North”. And I will translate the Danish songs into English and put them into reference.

I think when we see what we have in common, it is easier to let people have their own things. Something like the workshop, the choir has shown that there are topics that are very important for everything, they are just expressed differently. I think that music, theatre, art and working together can show that we have more in common than we think. There are some basic things like the willingness to understand, being actively curious and a desire to understand.
And I think that’s why music, food, drink, so powerful because we can get together around those things. And it might, like you say, it might look different. But it is the same.

Musicians who knew how to listen can create otherworldly harmony

You said that the musicians you worked with never played together before and that you have been interested in how they will perform your music. How did it work? Have you been astonished about what happened?
So you know, the musicians I brought from Denmark, I’ve worked with them for years. Hans Christian Molbech, Christan Mohr Levisen, Adam McKenzie, he’s a Dane as well. We just understand each other, whenever we worked together.I’ve been so lucky to find musicians who very easily reach each other and me. It comes to me in a way that I can lean into in music. And I had the same feeling with Alison and Fiona McNeill and never met Scott Figgins, the bagpiper, before we were in the studio.

What do you think contributed to the fact that the collaboration worked so well?
I trusted the recommendations of people I knew, and I trusted my gut feeling. I brought together musicians who were not only extraordinary artists but knew how to listen. They knew how to be with each other and lean into each other. And I think I, I remember there was especially a time on “Carry Me Home” where the cellist and the violinist, Adam and Alison, came together and created this otherworldly harmony piece for the chorus.

It must have been wonderful to hear your idea realised in this way.
When I heard it, I broke down in tears. And it’s the same with “Mythical Lamentations”. We didn’t play “Mythical Lamentations” more than once or twice before we recorded it all together.
I think the take you hear on the album was the second take we did. And that for me it was the high heights of what happens when you put great artists together in the same room who have a willingness to listen and lean into each other. And I can’t wait to make more of that.

In other words, it’s about listening, not thinking too much, but empathising?
It only works in this way. And that was really incredibly powerful. And we played some of the songs at Copenhagen with “Whiskey and Witches”. Otherworldly experience. I sat there and I thought, aha, this is why I do what I do. It is just otherworldly. And even if you only listen to the to the album, you can feel it.

….to leave music in the hands of others – recording and mastering

Oh, I think it’s full of life. It’s not so ‘polished’.
It has to be lively and not everything absolutely perfect in some way. It has to be full of this connection. And that’s so great.

I think that with Gavin Paterson, who was responsible for recording, and Kjell Braaten, who did the mastering, you found exactly the right people for this album.
Yes, the reason I chose Gavin and Kjell was the exact same reason. I it’s a very fragile and very vulnerable thing to bleed your heart out like that in music. And they have the same way listening and doing music. Kjell hears what comes over and he can let it be, I think. And he also he contributed with some of his amazing instruments to the album.
I personally need to feel safe and heard 100 percent by the people I leave my music in the hands of. Gavin and Kjell know how to do that. And the way they know how to talk to me about my music and how to bring out what I want to bring out without saying it made me feel so much at home.

What else has made this „feeling at home“, being safe, possible for you?
I could really just break, you know, break free, break out. And when I finished recording my vocals and I just bent forward because I was so exhausted. I was so out of breath. And Gavin said: “I don’t know how you do that. I don’t know how you keep that level of energy.”

A fire inside and songs hard to write

And where do you get your energy from?
I feel like I have a fire inside that stands like this all the time.  and depending on how safe I feel, I will feel like I am. O if I can unleash my fire and be relaxed, then I fee I can live my full artistic potential.

That’s a great picture. But what about the stories? You used words, you used stories. What kind of stories did you use for this album?
Oh, yeah, that’s a good question. The songs on this album are about home, about connecting to home. And I didn’t realise that until I brought it all together. I followed my intuition; I followed what I wanted to do.

About being at home in Danmark and Scottland? Feeling home in the Nordic and Celtic music?
I knew that it had to be rooted in the roots of Celtic and Nordic with my other influences on it. So “In the Old Town”, that’s written about feeling at home in, you know, in an old town where the stones sing a song of long ago, where you feel a calmness that you can’t really describe. You breathe in a different way.
“I Dag Bryder Lyset Frem” Is perhaps one of the ones that was the hardest to write, but the most satisfying. It’s about certain people in my family and myself who have suffered from mental health issues and trauma in a lot of ways. Where that song specifically says, I know you’re going through this right now.I know it’s fragile. I know you’re hurting. But someday the light will break through, and you will find your home. It’s where that part of your story ends. And one of my favourite lines from that song is, a whole new era will be burst in the reverb from the old one. So the echo will stop at some point. But your birth will start in the echo of the era you just left.

So “Echoes of North” are not just the reverberation of the North?
These are the old songs, that’s lingering on. So I try to do that both with the stories, both with the music. If you take part of and listen all the way thorough from “Mythical Lamentations Part 1” to “Drømte Mig en Drøm & Mermaids Croon“, those four songs are created to get you into this space and be together.

Yeah, that’s what I felt about it, that they are connected. And, when I listen to the album, I must have heard these songs together before I stop.            Oh, that’s nice. That’s good to hear. That’s how it works. I think, yes.

About harvesting songs and being a conductor

It sounds as if you don’t ‚make‘ the stories and songs, but they come to you.
Yeah, what I usually say is that I go around the world harvesting stories. They have a life of their own. Like, I’m just a conductor.
Some stories you have to leave alone for a while because they’re not ready. It’s like they’re sitting there like a stubborn child and saying: “Five more minutes on my Gameboy, please”. You have to leave them alone because you can feel when a song needs to be taken and saying, okay, I will put myself in this room and I will not leave it until I’ve finished this.

So you see it as more of a task to give them a framework in which they can develop?
I have to place myself in the right surroundings where the stories can actually blossom, I think it’s the finest task for me to do. Because if I’m in the right place and they go through different stages, I will go outside perhaps and have a walk and then I’ll start harvesting melodies. You know, I’ll just go around, I’ll be relaxed in my head and the melodies start popping from different places and then I capture them.Sometimes there’ll be words in those melodies and then sometimes I’ll pick those words out. And then at some point I need to sit in a place, and I need to figure out what’s in this melody.

But there is always an idea, a feeling behind it.
Yes, an idea, a feeling. And so you have to look up what the music brings. It’s funny because I think more often than not, when I sing a specific melody, yeah, the story pops up.

This is another beautiful picture and a fitting end to this interview.

Pictures and stories not only play an important role on your album, but also when you want to bring history to life with JOTUNGER. And not least on „Whisky and Witches“, where you accompany a whisky tasting with stories and songs.

So, thank you very much for the interview so far!

“Whisky and Witches” – more about these incredible idee for a whisky tasting

And for all curious, whisky-loving metal heads:If you want to find out more about „Whisky and Witches“, the tasting, the creation of this format, the stories and also the history of women in the whisky industry past and present and the question of what witches have to do with it, then check back here in the next few days!

More about Christine Kammerer HERE and her Album „Echoes of North“ THERE