ARTIST STATEMENT:

Here we are: the product of procrastination and a deep love of my roots.

While putting off working on the next Autumn Brigade album, I decided now was a perfect opportunity to delve into a genre that I love. I've always wanted to make a dungeon synth album, but making music about my dungeons and dragons campaigns seemed like a bit of a trope that has already been done by other dungeon synth artists. Taking inspiration and encouragement from my good pal Poppet, I set out in making music as Huskarl (that's the old Norse spelling of "Housecarl, which is the anglophone way of saying it).

Saxonland is a musical retelling of the year 1066, which was a very important year in Britain. Two important battles took place that year, when Harald Hardrada and his men battled Harold the Saxon at Stamford Bridge, and were defeated. Upon his return home, Harold the Saxon meets William I of Normandy and his army. William the Conqueror has a claim on the English throne, and the two men do battle at Hastings. After defeating Harold the Saxon, William crowns himself King of England, giving birth to the nation in which my family descends from.

Tracks 3 and 6 bear a remarkable resemblance, particularly with the horns and timpani drums. Mostly done to give a sense of intensity, and to signal to the listeners when the battle began. I wanted battle sequences to be as intense as possible, so I felt a rapid tempo of drums and a battle horn would do this justice.

Huskarl is not meant to be some sort of "ethnonationalistic" fantasy of the days of old, rather it is a celebration of my heritage in what I feel is a healthy manner, and a project that represents my love of European history, and medieval battles! I spent a lot of time on this project, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did making it!