Neofolk - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Neofolk is a form of folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial music

Industrial music

Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...

and experimental music

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

. The genre encompasses a wide assortment of themes. Neofolk musicians often have ties to other genres such as neoclassical

Neoclassical (Dark Wave)

Neoclassical Dark Wave refers to a music genre within the Dark Wave movement. It is characterized by the use of ethereal atmosphere and angelic female voices but also adds strong influences from classical music. Neoclassical Dark Wave is distinct from the academic art music form known as...

and martial industrial.

History

The term "neofolk" originates from esoteric music circles who started using the term in the late 20th century to describe music influenced by musicians such as Douglas Pearce (Death In June

Death in June

Death in June are a neofolk group led by English folk musician Douglas Pearce, better known as Douglas P. The band was originally formed in Britain in 1981 as a trio, but after the other members left in 1984 and 1985 to work on other projects, the group became the work of Douglas P. and various...

), Tony Wakeford

Tony Wakeford

Anthony Charles "Tony" Wakeford is an English folk and neoclassical musician who primarily records under the name Sol Invictus.Wakeford lives in London and is married to Sol Invictus violinist Renée Rosen....

(Sol Invictus

Sol Invictus (band)

Sol Invictus is an English neofolk and neoclassical group fronted by Tony Wakeford. Wakeford has been the sole constant member of the group since its inception, although numerous musicians have contributed and collaborated with Wakeford under the Sol Invictus moniker over the years.-Overview:For...

) and David Tibet

David Tibet

David Tibet is a British poet and artist who founded the music group Current 93, of which he is the only full-time member. He had earlier collaborated with Psychic TV and 23 Skidoo...

(Current 93

Current 93

Current 93 is an eclectic British experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet .-Background:Tibet has been the only constant in the group, though Steven Stapleton has appeared on...

) who had collaborated heavily for a period of time. These musicians were part of a post-industrial music circle who later on incorporated folk music based upon traditional and European elements into their sound. Folk musicians such as Vulcan's Hammer

Vulcan's Hammer

Vulcan's Hammer is a 1960 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick.- Plot introduction:In 2029 CE, the Earth is run by the Unity organisation after a devastating world war...

, Changes

Changes (band)

Changes are an American folk band formed in 1969 by cousins Robert N. Taylor and Nicholas Tesluk. Changes saw three distinct periods with rotating band members before their contemporary incarnation, heavily associated with the neofolk genre....

, Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

, and Comus

Comus (band)

Comus is a British progressive rock / folk band which had a brief career in the early 1970s; their first album, First Utterance, gave them a cult following which persists. They have revived in the late 2000s and played several festivals.-History:...

had created music with similar sounds and themes to neofolk as far back as the 1960s. These musicians could be considered harbingers of the sound that later influenced the neofolk artists. However, the distinction must be made that it was the aforementioned artists who were involved in the dark music scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s

1990s in music

For music from a year in the 1990s, go to 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99This article includes trends in popular music in the 1990s....

that contributed specifically to the emergence of neofolk. Neofolk is seen by many as an extension of post-industrial music into the folk music genre which did not occur until the late 20th century.

Culture

The spirit of neofolk contains parallels to the ideals of American and British folk movements of the 1960s. The basis of this music is built upon principles against commercialization and popular culture. However the themes of neofolk and folk music are drastically different. A majority of artists within the neofolk genre focus on archaic, cultural and literary references. Local traditions and indigenous beliefs tend to be portrayed heavily as well as esoteric and historical topics.

Heathenry and Occultism

Various forms of neopaganism

Neopaganism

Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...

and occultism play a part in the themes touched upon by many modern and original neofolk artists. Runic alphabet

Runic alphabet

The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...

s, heathen European sites and other means of expressing an interest in the ancient and ancestral occurs often in neofolk music. Aesthetically, references to this subject occur within band names, album artwork, clothing and various other means of artistic expression. This has led to some forefathers of the genre and current artists within the genre attributing it to being an aspect of a broader neopagan revival.

Apocalyptic folk

As a descriptor, apocalyptic folk predates neofolk and was used by David Tibet to describe the music of his band Current 93

Current 93

during a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Initially, Tibet did not intend to imply connection with the folk music genre; rather, that Current 93 was made by "apocalyptic folk, or guys."

The term was applied to most artists on the now-defunct World Serpent Distribution

World Serpent Distribution

World Serpent Distribution was a British record label and music distribution house formed in the 1990s by David Gibson, Alan Trench and Alison Webster...

company and music influenced directly by C93's Thunder Perfect Mind era. Gnostic

Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...

and Thelemic

Thelema

Thelema is a religious philosophy that was established, defined and developed by the early 20th century British writer and ceremonial magician, Aleister Crowley. He believed himself to be the prophet of a new age, the Æon of Horus, based upon a religious experience that he had in Egypt in 1904...

themes are often featured in the works of these artists, as well as influences from 1960s psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

and psych folk

Psych folk

Psychedelic folk or psych folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music that originated in the 1960s through the fusion of folk music and psychedelic rock...

. It is also sometimes used to describe those of similar musical distinction but not directly influenced or associated, such as Michael Gira

Michael Gira

Michael Rolfe Gira is an American musician, author, and artist. He is the main force behind the recently reformed New York City musical group Swans and fronts the Angels of Light...

. The project Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio

Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio

Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio is a neofolk and martial industrial music group from Stockholm. The band is composed of its founding member and vocalist Tomas Pettersson, and Rose-Marie Larsen, who replaced Chelsea Krook on backup vocals...

are one of the only currently active bands that describes their music as apocalyptic folk.

Folk noir

Folk noir was a term originally coined by photographer David Mearns in the 1980s to describe the music of mid-period Sol Invictus

Sol Invictus (band)

. It is generally related to Tursa Records-related bands. It is sometimes found on webzines as a more neutral term, without the specific connotations of "neofolk", but the meaning is largely the same though the usage of the term noir hints at an overall dark subject matter.

Other vague terms sometimes used to describe artists of this genre include "dark folk" and "pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....

folk". These terms are umbrella term

Umbrella term

An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields...

s that also describe various other forms of unrelated music.

Martial industrial

Martial industrial or military pop is a genre that shares a lot in common with neofolk and developed very close to it. A number of artists that could be classified as neofolk also regularly work with and play shows with martial industrial acts or produce martial industrial.

Other related styles include dark ambient

Dark ambient

Dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music that features foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones. Although it had its roots in the 1970s, Dark ambient emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable Effects units, synthesizer and sampling technology...

, neoclassical music, dark cabaret

Dark Cabaret

Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows with the stylings of post-1970s...

, industrial