The Nordic Sound with Jameson Foster

Send us Fan Mail Jameson and Jouhikko virtuoso Lassi Logrén celebrate Finnish independence day by talking about the Jouhikko/Tagelharpa tradition, Finnish folk music, and the Tagelharpa renaissance we’re experiencing outside of traditional folk circles. We also talk about Lassi’s new solo album “Jouhikko”, why Lassi believes the instrument itself sounds human, and what we might gain from learning...

Send us Fan Mail Finnish/Swedish(/Cornish?) duo Ville & Tommie join me in Nordic Sound #43 to talk about their uniquely freeform approach to performing Nordic folk music as an accordion and fiddle duo and their debut album "Stuffed Pockets". Along the way, we talk about how the duo came to be, where they come from as individual musicians, and that tricky line across tradition and inn...

Send us Fan Mail Join me as I dive deep into the history of Norway's folk music tradition with Fredrik Akselsen, acclaimed director of the series "Trollstemt" - a documentary I had been keeping tabs on since Mattias Thedens of Gangar first promoted it last year. It's funny to think I hadn't the slightest idea that I'd end up having the director on the Nordic Sound for...

Send us Fan Mail In part 2 of Nordic Sound #42, Jameson and Fredrik poke and prod at the thorny question of what folk music is, what makes something folk music, and what folk music means in a Nordic context with Fredrik contributing what he learned while writing and directing the documentary "Trollstemt". I've found these conversations are almost always had behind closed doors in hu...

Send us Fan Mail Jameson is joined by Maria Franz and Ingrid Aune Falch to talk about Songleikr's history with Midgardsblot and how important storytelling is as a part of Songleikr's music (and folk music in general). After taking us through their history with "medieval music", we get into a rather difficult and provocative discussion about what Nordic folk even is, with Maria...

Send us Fan Mail In Nordic Sound #40, Jameson is joined by Kjell Braaten to talk about Kjell’s approach to skaldic performance and his recent collaboration on the beautiful Lithuanian sutartines project with Stuba and Skaidra Jančaité as part of an ongoing mission to preserve and revitalize Lithuanian communal singing tradition.  Key topics in this conversation include Kjell telling why skaldic tr...

Send us Fan Mail In this co-sponsored event between ByNorse and the University of Colorado Boulder's Ethnomusicology and Nordic Studies departments, Einar joins Jameson in front of a live audience to talk about the animist cosmology behind Wardruna's music, what animism means to Einar, how Wardruna's music has (or hasn't) changed over time, and an inevitable deep discussion abo...

Send us Fan Mail In this monumental installment of the Nordic Sound, Jameson is joined by Mari Boine to reflect on her childhood, the rise and influence of her career through Gula Gula, how she has come to be an influential icon to so many around the world, and her place as a powerful voice for Sámi culture since the 1980s.  Along the way, Mari explains what Joik means to her and how it relates to...

Send us Fan Mail Jonas Lorentzen returns to the Nordic Sound to discuss what Nebala's been up to since last time we met. In this conversation, we have a retrospective on the debut album, and where Jonas wants to take Nebala's sound and vision from there. We also discuss singing as community and Jonas' singing workshops, ponder why we don't sing as much as we used to, and of cou...

Send us Fan Mail (#35 with Rúnahild is only available on Youtube due to unfortunate audio issues on my end) Today I am joined once again by Nils Edström, the man behind Hindarfjäll perhaps best known for his performance of My Mother Told Me with Peter Franzén from the Vikings television series. I’ve had Nils on before, but now he is back to talk about his latest album Seden which released almost a...

Send us Fan Mail In this very special Nordic Sound Channel interview, I sit down with Espen Winther of Eldrim for an exclusive early look at the new record "Daudrastev" as we preview and discuss each track before the album releases.  Espen has long been a vocal supporter of the channel, and it's truly been an honor to do this special collaboration in anticipation for both the new al...

Send us Fan Mail In Nordein's newest offering, "Reisa", we're given a three-course meal teasing some new and old ideas to expect from the project in the future, taking us from the world of early 2000s "celtic" folk world of into a more contemporary dark folk sound by the EP's end. A short review for a short EP - let's talk about it! "Nordein, fronted by...

Send us Fan Mail One of my favorite groups in the Nordic folk scene today is finally back, joined by the wonderful Norwegian hardanger fiddler Gura Kvifte Neisheim for the new maritime record "Kystnaert" This has been my most anticipated album of the summer, and for good reason. I fell deeply in love with this group back in 2016 with their incredible "The Moon We Watch Is the Same&q...

Send us Fan Mail Let's dive into the debut album from a daring new folk/jazz quartet from Sweden. Support the show The Nordic Sound is supported by its patrons over on Patreon.com/nordicsound Bar Monica Ember George Bets Carrie Gen Leigh Mike Cindy Clayton Drake Eric Jamie Julia Mary Michael Michael Sean Simon Tony You too can support the project at patreon.com/nordicsound

Send us Fan Mail A new kind of album review on the Nordic Sound Channel. And what better way to return to the grind than with a new release from one of my favorite Nordic singers, Eivør. Patreon.com/nordicsoundchannel "Eivør calls her Nordic home in the remote Faroe Islands a landscape of extremes. Sitting in the North Atlantic Ocean just above Scotland and southeast of Iceland, with a total...

Send us Fan Mail In a first for the channel, multi-instrumentalist and folk musician Chris Welsh sits down with me in my own living room to talk about his storied career with over a decade as Sun and Moon Dance, his multiple collaborations with some Nordic Sound Channel fan favorites, and his perspectives as an American working in the Nordic music scene. Along the way, Chris reflects on the import...

Send us Fan Mail In this very special episode I'm joined by fellow musicologist and mentor Ross Hagen to talk heathen musicology and how he and Mathias Nordvig went about approaching "Ancestral North: Spirituality and Cultural Imagination in Nordic Ritual Folk Music" - a musicological book on the nordic pagan music scene. Thanks for the good hang Ross! "Ancestral North: Spiritu...

Send us Fan Mail https://seidrblot.bandcamp.com In this interview, I'm happy to be joined by Visy Bloodaxe of Seidrblot to talk about a range of topics including the music he makes with the band, working with wood, how a love of medieval music led to him learning how to build his own instruments, and finding escape through music in a world filled with noise. Support the show The Nordic Sound...

Send us Fan Mail Do musicians get the final say in what their music is called, and is genre meant to be a literal descriptor of the music we hear? In the 3 years I’ve been running this channel, covering the music of Wardruna, Heilung, and almost everything in that sphere, I have had endless conversation over what to call this music with many alternatives offered for the sake of “anything but Vikin...

Send us Fan Mail Long have I been enchanted by the music of Ævestaden. The way these captivating musicians utilize instruments typically associated with dark folk (such as the lyre and bukkehorn), but instead put it in a folktronica setting where it somehow just fits so organically is a feat within itself. Solen var bättre där was on my top 10 albums of 2023 not only because of this incredibly ori...

Send us Fan Mail In this installment of the Nordic Sound Channel, I sit down with pagan folk veteran Kati Rán to talk about her two decades in the nordic dark folk scene, the changes she's seen take place over time, and of course, her new album Sála and her approach to the feminine skaldic perspective. Thanks for joining Kati, I'm really glad we got to tread some new ground for the chann...

Send us Fan Mail A very different interview this time around talking to a fellow academic! Join me in picking Ruben's brain about his archaeology scholarship on immersive sound in museums and music's ability to cultivate affective attachment to our world and history. Support the show The Nordic Sound is supported by its patrons over on Patreon.com/nordicsound Bar Monica Ember George Bets...

Send us Fan Mail What a crazy, eclectic month for Nordic music! As good a time as any to try out recording in 4k ;) All of the new music this month (including singles and others not included in the video) are now featured in the Nordic Sound Channel's Discovery playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3LMGZolMTYQgLu0uFbEHgO?si=b43d29f7017d4917 Join the patreon for the Nordic Sou...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview, I’m humbled to be joined by Lindy-Fay Hella of both Wardruna and Dei Farne to talk about her new album “Islet”, her undying love for Depeche Mode, and the mysteries of the sea. Thank you for joining, Lindy. As a long time fan, you have no idea how starstruck I am by the opportunity to chat with you about your music and our shared love of birds.  Patreon.com/nord...

Send us Fan Mail Hailing from beautiful Värmland in Sweden, Andreas Axelsson of the project Nattramn joins Jameson to talk about his latest album Gravmarken, his inspiration, and what brought him to the Dark Folk scene. Like myself, he's of the mind that "less is more" and we dive into our philosophies around writing and performing dark folk music. And he's NOT the singer for S...