Towards the Within — Í Tokuni

Seeing as now that I have more time to actually get on with doing actual writing instead of kvetching about bugs in my commenting system, I plan to fall into a bit more of a rhythm with this series of posts. The current plan is to post the “Towards the Within” series of musical discoveries on Wednesdays and Saturdays each week.

My current flavor of discovery is focused on trying to find international artists who record darkwave/coldwave/post-punk, or feel as if they might be inspired by that sound. As I listened, I started marking down bands and songs that caught my attention. I always have a handful other than my twice-weekly pick to choose from to write about. Lucky for me, I have been managing to find standout songs new to me that grab me and so that I give it a good couple of listens.

Initially, I had seeded a YouTube “radio” with a clutch of artists that fit the feel I was aiming for but, even on high discovery and variety, the songs started to feel samey, so I started playing around with the mix a bit more aggressively to drive the theme closer to my intent.

The Faroese/Icelandic artist going by the mononym of Eivør has captured my interest with two of her songs, Í Tokuni (featured below) and a more traditional-leaning sound of Trøllabundin (not featured, but follow the link or the one below if you like today’s featured song by this artist).

While the video for Í Tokuni is certainly evocative on its own, it was the song itself that first caught my attention. With elements of electronic music mixed with folk, the song has a mystical quality that migrates away from your more standard post-punk sound, and yet captures some of the same rhythms without the ofttimes monotony common to the darkwave genre. Eivør’s vocals add an ethereal element, without being that annoying cloying airy, breathy and wispy sound that is common for songs with female vocalist who are part of such efforts.

Eivør isn’t quite as extreme as Kristy Thirsk (vocalist for Rose Chronicles), but her exploration of sounds certainly leans towards that same level of experimentation. In Í Tokuni we have whispers mixed in and underlying, with great range of notes in the verse as well as a key change in the chorus, all with elements of a punch behind the words. Then are the little incidental elements like squeal/shrieks at the end of phrasing, along with something akin to joiking between yerses.

Again, even without the video to guide our vision, I think most of us can pick up that this song is leaning towards something mystical. The song’s title translates to “Into the Mist”, and the first verse carries that same quality.

As sung:

Gangi í tokuni
Eina í djúpu kvirruni
Síggi ongar varðar
Burtur allir garðar
Rópi men eingin svarar

And as translated to English (as submitted by aspenSage on lyricstranslate.com):

Walking in the mist
Alone in the deep silence
Can't see any cairns
Gone are all the houses
I call out but no one answers

Cairns. Mists. Alone and everything gone. A dreamlike sequence.

I encourage you to first listen to the song without the help of translation for the rest of song (or, perhaps, try it without the visuals) and then compare the impressions you are left with to the full translation of the lyrics. I think you might be surprised at just how much is conveyed in her delivery and tone. I am assuming, of course, that most of my visitors are not fluent in Faroese.

I find it interesting that, once again, my ears have perked up at a song and artist who has caught the attention of film and television production, but perhaps not that of pop culture. Eivør has provided tracks for a historic dramatization, The Last Kingdom, just as Fever Ray had for several other movies and shows. I am apparently not alone in being drawn to her sound.

What do you think? Not post-punk enough? Too folksy? Too witchy? Not witchy enough? Michael, I really want the songs I listen to be in English… ?

Pipe in on the comments below.

One other note: I will be collecting the songs in this series within a YouTube playlist which will be updated as the series progresses. I haven’t set up monetization (yet, although I might seeing as I might as well reap the benefit from ads instead of just Google), but you you will likely be subjected to ads on the playlist. The playlist is accessible by following the link, ravensweald — Towards the Within, or via the embed. If you prefer, you can just click on the playlist in the upper right (hamburger with numbers and an arrow) of the embed below to see which songs are part of the playlist without being subjected to ads if you employ a different streaming service for you online listening.