Hedningarna

Hedningarna is a Swedish and, for some years partly Finnish neo-folk music band that mixes electronics and rock with elements from very old Nordic folk music.

Hållbus Totte Mattson,

Hedningarna is a Swedish and, for some years partly Finnish neo-folk music band that mixes electronics and rock with elements from very old Nordic folk music.

Hållbus Totte Mattson, Anders Stake and Björn Tollin formed Hedningarna in 1987. Hedning (heathen) means "unfaithful" and the musicians said that they felt to a great extent unfaithful to the prevailing ideas in folk music. They wanted to go far back to the roots of the Old Norse culture, including the use of ancient instruments not much used in current Swedish folk music. Stake, a trained luthier, also began to invent and build new instruments, to produce new sounds.