Season of Mist are pleased to announce the signing of Russian Neofolk outfit Theodor Bastard! The band will release their brand new album via the label. In addition to the signing, Season of Mist will reissue the band’s albums ‘Vetvi’ (2015) and the recently released masterpiece ‘Volch’ya Yagoda’ (2020). Listen to the entire Theodor Bastard catalogue HERE.
Check out some of the artistic and breathtaking videos Theodor Bastard deliver HERE [embedded below].
Theodor Bastard comments on the signing: “We are very happy to share this great news with you – Theodor Bastard band has become a part of the world of Season of Mist. It is a very big event for us. Living in the deep of the wild Karelian forests on the edge of the Ecumene, we can now reach the audience all over the world and tell the myths and legends of our North through our music. We thank the whole team of Season of Mist so much. We were an indie band for over 20 years and all our lives we learned and did everything ourselves. From recording albums to selling them. From manufacturing merch to organizing tours. We have a lot of experience in this, but Season of Mist is the first label really attracted us with its concept and its approach. And we entrust them our music and our future. We know that together we can achieve more.”
Theodor Bastard is one of Russia’s most unusual bands who represents the electronic Karelian neofolk genre, while blending elements of dark wave and trip hop. Focused on messages of mythology and shamanism, the hallmarks of the band are the unique and bewitching lead vocals of multi-talent Yana Veva and the impeccable sound producing skills of Fedor Svolotch, who founded the band two decades ago.
From album to album, Theodor Bastard carefully and masterly combine many different exotic and traditional instruments. The special northern atmosphere of their albums is created with Nordic nyckelharpa and jouhikko, primeval flutes created from tree roots and shamanic percussion.
“We live in the north of Russia in Karelia, which has a difficult fate” states band leader Fedor Svolotch. He continues: “This is a harsh northern region with unpredictable nature, with spruce and pine forests. Bears are found here. Moose and hare come straight to my house. In Karelia there are beautiful cliffs and clear lakes with fresh water. These are our personal places of power, the places where stones and winds are talking to us. Singing for us a songs of the northern harsh nature“.
Theodor Bastard consists of six musicians, turning their performances into a dark and magical artistry that sends the audience back to Northern musical traditions. The collective captures a sound that is both ancient and modern as they blend electronics and contemporary sounds with rudimenrary instruments as well as their own hand-made instruments from stones, human bone and the roots of Karelian birch.
Genre: Karelian Neo-Folk
Line Up:
Fedor Svolotch – dulcimer, samplers, vocal
Yana Veva – vocal, bawu, ocarina
Kusas – percussions, winds
Alexey Kalinovskiy – keyboards
Sergey Smirnov – drums
Ekaterina Dolmatova – back vocal
Slava Salikov – cello, morin khuur
Press release courtesy of Season of Mist
