Russian Karelian Neofolk Outfit THEODOR BASTARD Announces Re-Issue of “Oikoumene” ‣ CVLTARTES

Russian Karelian Neofolk outfit THEODOR BASTARD are now announcing the re-issue of their 2012 masterpiece “Oikoumene.” The album will be re-released via Season of Mist in various formats on June 16, 2023.

The multi-layered and unpredictable 2012 album “Oikoumene” from THEODOR BASTARD inherits the band’s recognizable multi-genre approach where the psychedelic trip-hop, combined with cinematic instrumentals and archaic world music, meets modern technological electronics. They combine Russian texts with glossolalia and shamanic spells as easily as they change instruments on stage.

THEODOR BASTARD is one of Russia’s most unusual bands representing the electronic Karelian neofolk genre. Also, elements of darkwave and trip-hop are present in the band’s music. The message doesn’t carry out everyday problems and is mainly focused on 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, founder of the band who created the band 20 years 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 song of the northern harsh nature”.

THEODOR BASTARD‘s music is set out to take listeners to unexplored and other worlds. From the cold and twilight realms of the marshy swamps of taiga and mossy tundra to unexplored places where the earthly plane and the spiritual world are separated only by a thin ghostly veil. The band consists of 6 musicians, turning their performances into a dark magic act that sends the audience back to Northern musical traditions, to the Karelian and the Russian folk. The musicians use a variety of electronic devices and ethnic instruments, but also their own hand-made instruments from stones, human bone, and the roots of Karelian birch.

For over twenty years, THEODOR BASTARD have been known for their amazing serious attitude to the world beyond that very frontier. The band’s 2012 re-issue of “Oikoumene” is set out to take listeners to unexplored and other worlds.

You can pre-order “Oikoumene” here.