Taking their name from the Old Norse word for poet, Skáld are a French folk group built around a shared love for Norse mythology and traditional Norse music and instrumentation. Using medieval instruments such as lyres, talharpa, jouhikko, shamanic drums, and horns, while utilizing chants, polyphonic and sometime guttural singing, and lyrics based on Norse runic texts, the group brings ancient Viking culture into the present.

Founded in 2017 by French producer Christophe Voisin-Boisvinet, a respected presence in the folk/medieval music scene, the ensemble is built around the unique vocal and instrumental abilities of Justine Galmiche, Pierrick Valence, and Mattjö Haussy. Drawing from the epics La Völuspá and Gylfaginning — both of which are contained in the Edda, the collective name for a series of famous medieval Icelandic poems — the group issued their evocative debut album, Vikings Chant, in 2019 via Universal/Decca . ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Forêt Endormie (“Sleeping Forest” in English) is a neoclassical / dark folk ensemble formed in 2016 by Falls of Rauros guitarist and composer Jordan Guerette in the “Forest City” of Portland, Maine. Their current instrumentation of violin, double bass, clarinet, piano/keyboards, electric guitar, and voice allows for the exploration and fusion of disparate, but overlapping, musical worlds.

Their most recent album Une voile déchirée (2020) sees the group draw from “the vast openness of Impressionism, the complexity of early polyphony, the atmosphere of post-rock, and the pastoral nature of folk music” and from it “build a beautiful, delicate lace” (Invisible Oranges). All words are sung in French and are centered around the process of shedding inner negativity and fighting against the compulsion to retreat as we age, hopefully being more open to life afterward.