Funeral Folk is a musical collaboration between Sara Parkman and Maria W Horn. Together they explore the rituals of grief and the musical phenomenology of death through their respective crafts and influences.

Sara Parkman is a violinist, singer and composer focused on Swedish folk music. For her latest release Vesper, she has been diving into her Christian heritage - the sacred music that has been a part of her family traditions for several generations. Maria W Horn is a contemporary composer employing varied instrumentation ranging from analog synthesizers to choir, string instruments, pipe organ, and various chamber music formats. Her music is often based on minimalist structures, exploring the inherent spectral properties of sound.

Maria’s and Sara’s musical relationship dates back to when they were both teenagers playing in the same band in their hometown Härnösand. This band was at the time playing a blend between folk music and rock, influenced by the wave of progressive music deriving from the north of Sweden at the time.
During the process of making Funeral folk they revisited this shared background after a decade of cultivating their respective musical paths. This musical meeting explores everything from sacred songs and minimalist spectral music to folk melodies from Ångermanland and Finnish black metal. The music is performed with a varied instrumentation consisting of synths, zithers, hurdy gurdy, guitars and mellotrons, as well as voices and rusty cowbells.

Funeral Folk was originally composed for the dance performance Funeral created by Mattias Lech and Lisen Ellard. Funeral explores the rites of loss and their place in a de-ritualized and dying civilization.
Leading up to this performance, the group learned some traditional lamentation techniques of Finnish Karelia from Pirkko Fihlman. These songs of mourning have been used as a way of expressing collective and personal grief, and are sung at funerals to guide the deceased on their last journey.

Funeral Folk is being released in collaboration between the two labels Supertraditional - focusing on contemporary folk music and XKatedral - releasing music in the realm of slowly evolving harmonic and timbral sounds.