Heilung is an experimental folk music band made up of members from Denmark, Norway and Germany. Their music is based on texts and runic inscriptions from Germanic peoples of the Iron and Viking Ages. Heilung describe their music as “amplified history from early medieval northern Europe”. Their music is usually about Germanic deities, The Jotnar, and valkyries. “Heilung” is a German noun meaning “healing” in English. “The listener is supposed to be left at ease and in a relaxed state after a magical musical journey that is at times turbulent”. The recordings of the band are not limited to music, but also contain poems and the spoken word.
Heilung was founded in 2014 in Copenhagen by vocalist Kai Uwe Faust and Danish producer Christopher Juul. Juul, who had operated his own recording studio, Lava, in Copenhagen since 2003, admired Faust’s visual work as a tattoo artist, so they struck a deal: Faust offered Juul some free tattoos in exchange for help recording some poems. Thus Heilung was started.
Later in 2015 Maria Franz (Juul’s longtime girlfriend and a singer in progressive rock/pop-rock band Euzen in which Juul also played piano and electronics) started to work with Heilung – originally as a session vocalist. In 2015, the band self-released their debut album, Ofnir, and soon after that Maria Franz became the band’s third official member.
The band’s first performances in 2017 were at Castlefest and at the Midgardsblot Metalfestival. The Castlefest performance was recorded and released with the title Lifa on YouTube and as a live album. Their 2017 performance at Midgardsblot was listed by Metal Hammer as one of the ten best performances of 2017. Later that year, the band signed a contract with the label Season of Mist. In April 2018, the two previously self-released albums Ofnir and Lifa were reissued on vinyl and CD.
The band composed the soundtrack for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Fragments of Heilung’s music were used during season six of the popular television series Vikings. Heilung released their third studio album, Drif, on 19 August 2022 through Season of Mist. The album peaked at No. 9 and No. 25 in the German and Austrian album charts respectively.
