Sara Parkman and Maria W Horn explore together the possibilities of expressing collective and personal sadness in relation to folk songs and black metal with the help of synthesizers, guitars and cowbells.

ffo: Lingua Ignota, Roadburn, Gregorian chant, Tarkovsky

Funeral Folk was created by Swedish violinist Sara Parkman and composer Marie W Horn. Together they explore rituals of mourning and the musical phenomenology of death through folk practices and contemporary influences. Maria and Sara have known each other since they were teenagers, playing in a band in their hometown of Härnösand in Ångermanland, Sweden. They have translated their shared background into Funeral Folk songs that reflect influences from spiritual music and black metal, or learned the technique of lamentation from Finnish Karelia, which is used to express personal and collective grief and is sung at funerals to guide the deceased on their final journey. Dead calm and spectacular reincarnations – Funeral Folk is music with an open heart and an open casket.

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The Alternativa festival of heavy music reveals the first names of this year’s edition and as usual it is a distinctive selection from the edges, where there is no lack of novel connections and local curiosities. The 33rd edition will take place on the weekends of 14-15 and 21-22 November. The first wave of artists announced covers a wide range of approaches in contemporary adventurous music, from free improvisation to radical electronica. For more information visit https://www.alternativa-festival.cz

The Alternativa Festival is organised by the Unijazz association and is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic and the City of Prague.