Heilung on Tour

Is it poetry in motion? Is it a religious experience? Is it spiritual cleansing? Find out for yourself when European music group Heilung goes on their 2022-2023 international tour. With a style that merges “ancient melodies” with ambient natural sounds and shamanic rhythms, Heilung (German for “healing”) is slated to make 24 stops across Europe and the United States to showcase their original style to a broad audience. Perhaps known best for performing their act in full pagan ritual attire, concertgoers praise Heilung for showcasing their unique style with unwavering energy that feels like it could be plucked straight out of Viking mythology, complete with antler headdresses, furs and bones. Despite three studio-released albums, including Futha — which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Heatseeker Chart and fourth on the Billboard World Music Chart — music that was featured in a “Game of Thrones,” trailer and several video game partnerships, Heilung might be best known for their 2017 performance at Castlefest in Lisse, Netherlands. On three-days notice, the band rocked a crowd of at least 10,000 people with their pagan-folk performance that subsequently went viral. It received so much acclaim, the group released it as a live album titled, Lifa. 

Heilung in Concert

Formed by German vocalist Kai Uwe Faust and Danish instrumentalist and sound engineer Christopher Juul, Heilung formed in 2014 to create a new style of music that claims to be “amplified history.” Maria Franz would later join the group as both a vocalist and instrumentalist. Faust, who was raised in a tightly-run Christian household, became fascinated by pre-Christian traditions in the world. At a relatively early age she discovered both shamanism (or the study of a religious phenomenon centered on a person believed to achieve various powers through a trance or other ecstatic religious experience) and Viking mythology. Similarly, Juul was the son of a pagan priest in Copenhagen. The two came together when Faust offered to trade Juul a tattoo in exchange for time in Juul’s recording studio. A year later, the trio released their debut album, Ofnir. Their most recent album was also their most successful, Futha which features the hit song “Norupo.”