Gjallarhorn (group)

Gjallarhorn
Gjallarhorn in 2007
Background information
Origin	Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland
Genres	world music folk music
Years active	1994–present
Members	Petter Berndalen (percussion) (2004– ) Adrian Jones (viola, mandola, kalimba) (2000–) Göran Månsson (flutes, recorders, sub contrabass recorder) (2005– ) Jenny Wilhelms (vocals, fiddle and hardangerfiddle) (1994– )
Past members	Jakob Frankenhaeuser (didgeridoo) (1994–1996) David Lillkvist (percussion) (1996–2002) Tommy Mansikka-Aho (didgeridoo, slideridoo and jaw harp) (1996–2004) Christopher Öhman (viola, mandola)(1994–2000) Sara Puljula (percussion) (2002–2003)

Gjallarhorn (Swedish pronunciation: [jalaɹhuːɳ]) is a band that performs world music with roots in the folk music of Finland and Sweden. The group was formed in 1994. The band's music echoes the ancient folk music tradition of Scandinavia with medieval ballads, minuets, prayers in runo-metric chanting and ancient Icelandic rímur epics in a modern way.

The group is named after the Gjallarhorn of Norse mythology.

The band is Finnish and hails from Ostrobothnia, a Swedish-speaking region on the west coast of Finland, [1] one of the four regions of the historical province of Ostrobothnia and the only region in Finland outside the Åland Islands where more people speak Swedish rather than Finnish.

The music of the band remains Swedish in character. Most of their repertoire is the acoustic folk music of these Swedish-speaking Finns, from the unique minuets and ballads that have only survived in Ostrobothnia, to the old traditional waltzes. The didgeridoo and sub-contrabass recorder offer an underlying drone, a technique shared by some other Nordic bands such as Garmarna. Also notable is their use of the hardanger fiddle and Jenny Wilhelms' kulning, a high-pitched, wordless vocal technique based on traditional Scandinavian cattle-herding calls.