On December 11, Heilung will release their first album in four years, Sagas, a collection of music the German-Danish group composed for the soundtrack to Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga. To mark the announcement, they’ve released the video for the album’s first single, Læknisgaldr.
“Læknisgaldr is conceived as a song of healing,” they explain. “It is rooted in a belief from the early medieval period that language is bound to the condition of the human body: to name an affliction is to define it, contain it and open it to ritual healing. With each repetition of the song’s percussive beat the affliction weakens, until chanting guides it towards dissolution.”
Being Heilung, even working for a video game, ancient spirits weren’t far away during its creation.
“The first sound you hear on Læknisgaldr was not made by anything from our reality,” they reveal. “During the recording process, somehow, while playing with real human bones and breath, we managed to capture a ghost in the studio!”
Freak yourself out…