Kati Ran | L.E.A.F performs on historical and mediëval instruments and combines ancient scandinavian poetry, self written lyrics and traditional folk melodies to create the captivating subgenre 'Nordic Folk'.
Music can
be considered one of the strongest ways to communicate with one another on an
intimate and personal level. Music created from deep within can transmit
pure feeling and universal emotions. Therefore, music is a reminder that we are
a part of Nature; it may cause the listener to wake up and see the beauty of
the dream called Life.
Fascinated by these phenomena Kati Ran learned to create,
step by step, her own music and capture the melodies coming from within.
Together with Fieke van den Hurk they gave shape and form to the birth of the
Nordic Folk band 'LEAF' back in 2010.
L.E.A.F plays on a variety of historical and medieval folk
instruments, such as the Swedish nyckelharpa, Celtic Harp, hammered dulcimer,
acoustic guitar and Irish bouzouki, Kraviklyra, overtone flutes, shamanic
drums, rattles, Finnish kantele and more.
The combination of warm traditional folkmelodies, ritual and
poetic texts, multi layered vocals and powerful shamanistic influences makes
L.E.A.F today a well loved, Nordic folk band of this moment, in which their
Scandinavian musical influence creates a new subgenre with the known Folk scene
in Europe.
"From the start it has been our intention
to make music that carries the power to reconnect people to history and to each
other, while sounding fresh and pure as Nature itself. A leaf is one of the
strongest symbols to represent Nature as a whole. The name of the band is a
strong and poetic choice and, like the music; a reminder of our origin." -
Kati Ran
Line-up
Kati Ran
production, songwriting, vokal, hammered dulcimer, nyckelharpa, perkussion, kraviklyra, kantele, overtone flute, mouthharp& other..
LIVE:
vokal, nyckelharpa: Kati Ran
vokal, keltic harp: Jacqueline Helisir
Hardanger fele: Martine Kraft / Olav Luksengård Mjelva
Drums, vokal: HC Dalgaard
Throatsinging, perkussion, woodblock, drej-leier, viking-lyra, hammered dulcimer: Kjell Braaten
Keys, dulcimer: Chantel Bleumink
L.E.A.F - 'LYS'
Tracklist:
1.Flamme
2.Sol
3.Ran
4.Terveh
5.Harpa Toner
6.Nymånen
7.Vinda
8.Fylgja
9.Suurin
10.Lys
Track 1: Flamme
Right away this track opens the album with Kati’s clear and warm voice. The song sounds like an intro, a promise for the rest of the album. The lyrics of the song are by Kati, but with components from Atlamal and Gripisspa, two of the Eddic poems, immediately showing that this album is more than “just music”.
Track 2: Sol
Sol means ‘Sun’, which as the booklet explains has always been very important. The song to me is about man’s journey through time. Like the previous song the lyrics are written by Kati, but this time it contains verses of the poem ‘Let the Light Enter” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. The music starts off simple, but more and more layers get added as the song progresses, which to me can represent not only the seasons of the year, caused of course by the sun, but this can also symbolise life, as it starts off simple but as we grow older we add more and more complexities to life.
Track 3: Ran
The start of this song feels deeply spiritual. When the percussion comes in it provides a lot of depth in the sound and slowly but surely it grows into a song with quite a massive presence. Ran is the Goddess of the sea but also Kati’s stage name.
Track 4: Terveh
Our first ever Monthly Marker and it has been a part of our playlist ever-since. Terveh is a song in an old Finnish language from the Karelian area, and it’s an old Scandinavian rite to contact and communicate with the spirits of the neighbouring forests. As far as the music goes it does have more of a “modern” feel than what you would expect of something so ancient. The hand of Christoffer Juul (Valravn, EUZEN, LAVA studios) is clear in this song. Powerful in the low end, very melodic in the vocals.
Track 5: Harpa Toner
A traditional Norwegian song, and as we may expect from the older European fairytales, death plays a rather large part in it. The song is a story about a girl gets killed by her older sister, so that the older sister can then marry the lover of the dead sister. However, the bones and hair of the young sister are used to create a harp, which then plays at the wedding and sings the truth. Musically a very layered track, with a clear and sharply defined high end and some deep dark lows, combining to a very complete song. Highly enjoyable, if you can forget the murder and body parts 
Track 6: Nymanen
A remake of Under Nymanen from L.E.A.F.’s earlier EP. This was my personal favourite then, and the song that made me fall madly in love with the vocal quality of Kati Ran, and so I’m happy that this song was selected for a remake. I can say that the song hasn’t changed an awful lot fortunately, we can just hear that it has matured and has become somewhat more powerful.
Track 7: Vinda
A very laid-back type of song. Slower, with a dreamy quality, it makes you want to close your eyes and just drift off. The song was written by Maria Franz (Euzen) when she was only fourteen, and indeed Maria sings this song as a duet with Kati. I don’t speak Danish, so I can’t really attest to that, but the English translation certainly does have a very poetic feel to it!
Track 8: Fylgja
The title of this song is in Old Norse and the lyrics in German, which would then make the 4th or 5th language on the album, none of which are Kati’s native tongue. If nothing else this emphasizes the international aspect of this album. The song takes the listener deep into a dream-state, with a very nice continuous rhythm and heavy reverb on Kati’s soothing vocals.
Track 9: Suurin
Suurin is another traditional rite from Finland, and the shamanistic properties of the song are evident from the start. Strong drums and a powerful chant, and the power just keeps building up during the song. Even though the song itself doesn’t reach a clear climax, I can certainly envision people reaching a level of ecstasy from this song when performed or played in the right circumstances.
Track 10: LYS
LYS starts off as a Galdr, an ancient form of song intended to conjure magic. I have been fortunate enough to have seen this song performed live on stage at Castlefest during the combined L.E.A.F./SeeD show, and it certainly felt magical! What a sense of power coming from that stage! And I will admit, even the recorded version gives a similar power, which is not often the case. From start to finish this track speaks to the primal part in my soul with the carefully crafted Galdr text and the massive power from the rhythm.
