DANHEIM, the Nordic folk and ambient project of Copenhagen-based producer Reidar Schæfer Olsen, has released a new single, "Urblod", via Season of Mist. The track follows Heimferd, the project's first album for the label, which is out now.
Where Heimferd explored the idea of a homeward journey, "Urblod" turns back to the explicit mythological storytelling of DANHEIM's earlier records. The song is a ritual chant dedicated to the Jötnar, the giants and primordial beings of Norse mythology, and name-checks figures such as Ymir, Bergelmir, Þrúðgelmir, Bölþorn, Bestla and Hræsvelgr. It reaches for the oldest layer of the myths: creation, ancestry, wilderness and the untamed forces that both gods and giants ultimately come from.
Olsen explains that he wanted the track to feel like a chant reaching back beyond the gods, toward the oldest beings in Norse mythology. In his words, the Jötnar "are not simply monsters or enemies of the gods: they represent something much older — primordial forces, and the untamed world from which everything else emerges."
Musically, "Urblod" stays within DANHEIM's familiar language of heavy percussion, chant and ambient texture, here pointed at a cosmology that predates the gods themselves. The single runs 3:20.
Olsen has been making electronic and ambient music for well over a decade, and founded his own label, Fimbul Records, before signing with Season of Mist. DANHEIM passed one billion streams in 2022, and its music has been featured across several seasons of the TV series Vikings. Fans of HEILUNG and WARDRUNA will know the territory.
Stream "Urblod": orcd.co/danheimurblod
Order & Stream "Heimferd": orcd.co/danheimheimferd
Follow DANHEIM: Website · Bandcamp · Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube · Instagram · Facebook