Sorten Muld

Mark II, the first album from Sorten Muld, comes on as something of a quiet revolution. On traditional songs, electronics, samples, and loops mingle with a female singer and a sprinkling of ‘real' instruments. It's the type of thing to put purists in a snit, but it'll bring smiles of joy to any forward-looking fan of folk music. The band (Ulla Henriksen, vocals; Henrik Esben Munch, sound designer; and Martin Dessing Ottosen, architect) are among a few artists making folk music for the 21st century, infusing it with some very fresh blood.

"Ulla and I started the project in autumn 1995," explains Ottosen. "Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, had been chosen as the European Cultural City of 1996, and in relation to that we were asked to form the project. We started recoding songs in Henrik's studio, and soon he had become the natural third member of the band. Using traditional sources was part of our overall concept; to combine the sound of state-of-the-art music technology with the stories and melodies from the medieval Nordic folk ballads. Mix the international pop music with elements from our own underground." So it's no surprise that the band's influences included Massive Attack, Bjork, Orbital, and Underworld. "But," Ottosen adds, "Swedish folk bands like Folk og Rackere and Hedningarna were also part of our inspiration."

As people like Garmarna and Snakefarm have shown, the old ballads can thrive in new surroundings. In fact, they need to be repotted every once in a while. Sorten Muld (the name means ‘black earth') didn't just take Danish songs, however; they plundered the Nordic spectrum.

"The ballads have been used in all Nordic countries," Ottosen observes, "and very often you can find versions of the same song spread out over the whole Nordic area" - in other words, not unlike those pieces that spread from Britain or Ireland to America and mutated.

"We don't have any need to categorize our music."

Considering the material, it might seem odd only one of the band had a folk background.

"Ulla grew up in Skagen, a small town which has been the host to one of Denmark's greatest folk festivals for many years, so she's been listening to folk music from an early age. Neither Ottosen nor Munch were familiar with it but "I didn't know much about making electronic music, either," laughs Ottosen. We just let the recorded (folk) instruments melt together with synths, samplers, and effects until we found the sound we were looking for. I think we have broken a lot of ‘rules' from both genres without even noticing it. We don't have any need to categorize our music."

But it's surprising the connections you find. "We discovered early on that the drone (constant bass tone) you often find in electronic music was similar to the sound of the medieval drone instruments like the bagpipe, hurdy gurdy, and the jew's harp." The difference is that for Sorten Muld, the main instrument - voice aside - was the computer.

They haven't been exclusively a studio band, though, having played some shows in their native country, which helps explain the confusing Mark II title of the record.

"To coincide with our first concert in Copenhagen, we released a mini album with half the songs that are on Mark II [probably Mark I]. Soon we had a lot of interest in our music, and we were contacted by a number of record companies. Since we enjoyed the work, we completed material for a full length album, Mark II."

It would be lovely to think that they might travel overseas, but don't expect it anytime soon.

"Ulla and I are expecting a baby any day now, so we will take a natural break for a while," Ottosen says. "But hopefully we will be able to release another record before the end of the next millennium...."

And that one will probably be ahead of the curve, too.

Sorten Muld

"We don't have any need to categorize our music."

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