Garmarna is a Swedish

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

band. Their songs are mainly old

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

Biography

Garmarna was founded in 1990. Stefan Brisland-Ferner, Gotte Ringqvist and Rickard Westman were inspired by old Swedish music, which they had heard in a theatre. They began searching for old tunes and instruments. After two years of playing together, Jens Höglin joined the band on drums. In 1992 the band recorded their first EP. They thought that female vocals would provide a contrast to the dark mood of their music and invited Emma Härdelin, a long-time friend of the band, as the guest vocalist on the EP. She officially joined the band in 1993. The debut EP sold well in Sweden, and helped the band tour in Scandinavia. On the album ''Vittrad'', the band decided to add samples and sequencers to the mix. In 1994, Omnium released ''Vittrad'' in the United States, with English translations of the old songs. Garmarna started a long

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

tour and released the album '' Guds spelemän'' in 1996. The album sold well in Sweden and was reviewed favourably internationally. In 1998 Garmarna did a series of concerts in churches in the North of Sweden presenting their interpretation of the medieval works of

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen Benedictines, OSB (, ; ; 17 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictines, Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mysticism, mystic, visiona ...

, together with actress Felicia Konrad. In 1999 the band released their third album '' Vedergällningen''. The album's production leaned towards

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

trip hop Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental var ...

, the atmosphere of the music being more obscure than in previous albums. After ''Vedergällningen'', the band collaborated with Swedish

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

producer Eric S. for their next studio album ''Hildegard von Bingen'', which was released in 2001. The tracks in this album are based on the compositions of 12th century German abbess

, with the lyrics to each song being sung entirely in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. In 2003, their first EP was released as a full album with six bonus tracks. Garmarna-160729

In 2016, the band released their sixth album called '' 6.'' In 2018, Garmarna initiated a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign to raise funds for a new album, ''Förbundet'', to be released on November 6, 2020. The album was released on

Season of Mist Season of Mist is an independent record label and record distributor with subsidiaries in France and the United States. The record label was founded in 1996 by Michael S. Berberian in Marseille, France. From the start releasing black metal, pa ...

containing mostly interpretations of traditional Swedish folk songs and two original tracks by Garmarna. Guest musicians on this album include Maria Franz from

Heilung Heilung is a European experimental folk music band. Formed in 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark, the group is made up of members from Denmark, Norway, and Germany. Their music is based on texts and runic inscriptions from Germanic peoples of the Iron A ...

and Anders Norudde from Hedningarna.

Band members

* Stefan Brisland-Ferner –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

, sampler – on ''Garmarna'' (2003):

jews harp The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or Reed (mouthpiece), reed attached to a frame. Despite the colloquial name, the Jew's harp most like ...

, viola * Emma Härdelin –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, violin * Jens Höglin –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

– on ''Garmarna'' (2003): death grunts * Gotte Ringqvist –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, violin, backing vocals – on ''Garmarna'' (2003):

lute guitar A lute guitar or German lute (, less commonly a ''lutar'' (modern Turkish language, Turkish), ''gui-lute'' or ''gittar'') is a stringed musical instrument, common in Germany from around 1850. The instrument has a regular six-stringed guitar setup ...

jew's harp The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame. Despite the colloquial name, the Jew's harp most likely originated in ...

* Rickard Westman – guitar,

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

e-bow The EBow is an electronic device used for playing string instruments, most often the electric guitar. It was invented by the American guitarist Greg Heet in 1969 and introduced in 1976. The EBow uses a pickup and a magnetic feedback circuit to ...

– on ''Garmarna'' (2003):

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

, lute guitar

Discography

Albums

Singles

* "Herr Holger" (Sir Holger) (1996) * "En gång ska han gråta" (One Day He Shall Cry) (1997) * "Euchari" (1999) * "Gamen" (The Vulture) (1999) * "Över gränsen" (2015) (Over the Border) * "Kashmir" (2019) * "Ramunder" (2020)

Other

* "Rastlös" (Restless) in compilation ''We're Only in It for the Money'' (1999) *''

Nordic Woman ''Nordic Woman'' is a compilation album that features traditional music forms performed by well known female artists in Nordic countries. ''Nordic Woman'' was released worldwide in 2012. The album is the first release from ''WOMAN'' which is an ...

'' (2012)

In popular culture

The single "Gamen" was featured in the 2003 video game ''

Project Gotham Racing 2 ''Project Gotham Racing 2'' is a 2003 arcade-style racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft Game Studios. It was released exclusively for the Xbox (console), Xbox in November 2003 as the succe ...

''.

References

External links

Official website (not updated since 2005)New band websitemuzu.tv
All videos

* ;Video:
Interview
from The Pure Drop {{Authority control Swedish folk rock groups Swedish-language musical groups Westpark Music artists Season of Mist artists Musical groups established in 1990 Musical groups from Sundsvall