The trees parted and from among their dappled shadows emerged the nible Faun we'd so long been calling to our midwestern home. Oliver Sa Tyr, Niel Mitra, Stephan Groth, Adaya, and Alex Schulz carried a faint air of petrichor and woodsmoke, moss and mist with them as they stepped close and embraced Detroit in a fertility ritual, playing Walpurgisnacht early in their set. It must be a potent magic in their song; singer Laura Fella stayed home to welcome her newborn.
Each among them is a skilled multi-intrumentalist, collectively wielding bagpipes, a beautiful variety of flutes, hurdy-gurdy, an assortment of stringed instruments, and backed by the subtle, atmospheric touch of Niel Mitra's electronic stylings. It is challenging to envision electronic components fitting well with an acoustic, medieval, woodland folk, but Mitra has perfected his craft, giving backstory to the music, like wind that rustles the leaves, the soft crush of brush underfoot, the echoes of life. His is a quiet presence.
Stephan Groth offered a sampling of the many sounds of a modern hurdy-gurdy, run through various effects, but retaining its oaky character, a tone which originates from the turning of a rosined wheel pressing lightly against the strings, akin to the bowing of a violin, but with a simple, mechanical charm.
Another more recent addition to Faun, accomplished solo artist Adaya focused her efforts on the woodwind section this gentle evening, though that is only a fraction of her musical capacity. Her website explains her background, saying:
"After all, she defined her career already as a child.
At the age of 11, Adaya wrote on of her first songs; a poem by her grandmother, which she set to music played at Juliette's deathbed (Gypsy Line from her most recent album New Land). Later on, Adaya was collaborating with several meieval music projects and her musical skills grew by playing the harp, bagpipes, flutes, bouzouki, next to the guitar, banjo, and a few more stringed instruments."
Playing a standing drum kit and an array of other percussive accents, percussionist Alex Schulz (also of Oliver Sa Tyr's Folk Noir project) has only joined Faun in 2023, taking on the role left behind by Rudiger Maul, whose affiliation with Faun remains obscured to us at the time of this writing. We have been unable to clarify whether he's left the band, or is simply attending to the details of life for an unknown period, with an intent to return. While we hope he does, we are happy to say that Schulz upholds the standard set by Maul's long years with the band.
A lighthearted Oliver Sa Tyr gave playful dialogue, embellishing songs with story and setting, sharing, in brief, the tale of a man stolen away by the faerie queen, and whose love waited, steadfast and loyal, for his return, making her way to where the fae world would overlap ours again, in the same spot of the forest where he'd disappeared those seven years before. So began Tamlin and the Fairy Queen.
Fella's absence outlined the perimeter of their setlist, so that the beautiful, coupled female harmonies which largely define their sound will have to wait until another tour for us to hear them. We sincerely hope they will have been so delighted to discover the breadth and depth of love for their music that they return. They have a large catalogue of songs, and we can name none that sour our ears.They closed the night with Hymn to Pan, a song that is both boisterous and whispering, bouncing and hushed, passing like moods through a deer, sometimes full of frolic, sometimes still, and always with a haunting anticipation hanging in the air. We are already longing for their return.
