“We are in lucky times to make music with these old, old instruments”— Nordic Folk musician Kati Rán talks about the upcoming new album and her journey as an artist

In recent years, the Nordic Folk genre has become increasingly popular, thanks to big acts like Wardruna and Heilung and to big studios such as Netflix embracing the topic. This summer, Chaoszine met with Kati Rán, a Dutch vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with a deep connection to Nordic Folk. She composes her own music and makes tracks for historical dramas on Netflix and video games. In 2015, Kati released her debut album “LYS”, recorded and produced by Cristopher Juul of Heilung. One of the most popular tracks from the record, “SUURIN” (2.8M views to date), is in Finnish and features Maria Franz and Kai Uve Faust’s vocals. After “LYS”, Kati created several singles (“Blodbylgje“, “Unnr MINDBEACH“) with black metal musician Ghaal (ex-Gorgoroth, Gaah’s WYRD).

She has worked with many famous names — toured with Wardruna, made guest appearances with Myrkur, and today, is helping renovned film composer Trevor Morris with music for the Netflix hit series “Vikings: Valhalla”. Being an active part of the scene for many years, Kati oversaw the production of the first-ever Heilung show at Castlefest in 2017 — the concert that went viral on YouTube and kickstarted the band’s worldwide recognition.

The new album will be out in 2024, featuring a strong and diverse team of artists — Gaahl, Gealdyr (a “rising” Nordic Folk artist from the Netherlands), Ravn (SKÁLD), and several names from the Heilung crew. The recording is produced by Jaani Peuhu, a Finnish musician (Iconcrash, Swallow The Sun, IANAI – the latter project together with Kati Ran) and producer (eg. Lord of the Lost). From Kati’s social media, we discovered she is working on her new album — right here in Helsinki, Finland, — and jumped at a chance to have a long interview about her new music and her entire career.

Kati Rán website: https://www.kati-ran.nl/
Bandcamp: https://ranarvegr.bandcamp.com/.

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