Reidar Schæfer Olsen (born 29 April 1985), known professionally as Danheim, is a Danish

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

and Nordic folk musician.

Works and style

Olsen was born in Brøndby in 1985 and produced mostly in the electronic genre until 2016, when a strong interest in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

led him to start combining that with his music. His

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

approximately means 'Danish home', taken from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

language word , meaning 'home'. Since 2016, Danheim has released eight records on his own independent label. His style has been described by reviewers as "

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

doing the soundtrack for

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

" or "inspired folk music, with dark undertones". Lyrically, his music deals with such tales from Norse mythology such as Hrungnir's fight with

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

, the story of

Fimbulwinter Fimbulwinter (from , ) is the immediate prelude to the events of Ragnarök in Norse mythology. Etymology comes from Old Norse, meaning "awful, mighty winter". The prefix ''fimbul'', albeit with a largely unknown etymology, means "mighty, gian ...

and much more. In his 2019 release , Danheim recorded the last three minutes of a track using only parts of dead plants and animals, as well as some real human bones. In 2019, Danheim also contributed music to the soundtrack of three episodes from the second half of the sixth season of the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

series ''

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

''. One of the actors from the show,

Georgia Hirst Georgia Octavia Hirst (born 26 December 1994) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Torvi in the History (Canadian TV network), History series ''Vikings (2013 TV series), Vikings'' (2014–2020) and Becky in the zombie horror mo ...

, enjoyed Danheim's contributions to the score so much that she released a social media video praising his music. his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel had 555,000 subscribers and received more than 220 million video views. In March 2020 Danheim released his third full-length album of 11 tracks, . He decided to release the album earlier than planned, to help entertain his fans under lock-down or in isolation due to the 2020 Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic. Reviewers praised the album's 'visceral and hypnotic' composition, and noted the varied instrumentation that produced a 'multidimensional Viking soundbath'. Teemu Esko of Kaos Magazine called "versatile and touching, while rich and immersive".

Discography

Albums

* (2017) * (2017) * (2018) * (2018) * (EP, 2018) * (2018) * (2019) * (2020) * (2021)

Singles

*"" (2017) *"" (2017) *"Temple of Odin" (2017) *"Ivar's Revenge – Danish Viking Music" (2017) *"" (ft. ) (2017) *" – Vocal Version" (2017) *"" (2017) *"" (2017) *"" (2017) *"Floki's Last Journey" (2017) *"" (2017) *"" (2017) *"" (2017) *"" (ft. ) (2017) *"" (2017) *"" (2017) *"War of the North" (2017) *"Valhal – Viking War Song" (2017) *"" (2017) *"" (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (ft. ) (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (ft. ) (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (2018) *"" (ft. ) (2018) *"" (2019) *"" (ft. Gealdýr) (2019) *"" (2019) *"" (ft. Heldom) (2019) *"" (ft. Gealdýr) (2019) *"" (2020) *"" (2020) *"" (2021) *"" (2021) *"" (2022) *"" (2022) *"" (2022) *"" (2022) *"" (2022) *"" (2022) *"" (2022) *"" (2023) *"" (2023) *"" (2023) *"" (2023)

References

{{Authority control Danish musicians Ambient musicians Nordic folk musicians Living people 1985 births

Works and style

Discography

Albums

Singles

See also

References