Of Last Rites and Dire Omens: The Dark Artistry of Ulvik

Three years after their latest release, atmospheric black metal / dark folk duo Ulvik has unleashed their new studio album, Last Rites | Dire Omens via Avantgarde Music. The Canadian duo formed by Jade Fadel and George Allen once again defies genre borders, and the stunning reveries found within will surely captivate music fans looking for an exhilarating auditory adventure.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Ulvik to find out more about their dark and imaginative artistry.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Ulvik, and how long the band has been together.
Ulvik is just the two of us, Jade Fadel & George Allen. It started as Jade’s project with Vol I & II, and then became a duo project with the writing of our short instrumental album Isolation Motifs during the early days of the pandemic. It then kicked into a higher gear once we started writing our last album Cascades. We tend to share and collaborate on much of what goes into this project as far as songwriting goes. It’s a lot of back and forth iteration. We also don’t really have determined roles as far as instruments go, and share vocals, guitar, bass, and the various other instruments that end up on these songs. Generally though, Jade is responsible for all of the drumming and percussion, and George handles all the bowed stuff.

Where is Ulvik based out of and what is the local music scene like there?
Ulvik is based near & around the mainland Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The local metal scene here is active and has been picking up momentum since the pandemic ended. There are a lot of incredible metal bands based out of Vancouver or have originated from the scene here.

How did you wind up signing with Avantgarde Music?
We started collaborating with Avantgarde after the launch of Volume 1-2 back in 2019. We were contacted by 2 labels but reached out to Avantgarde because we appreciated their work and the bands releasing more experimental music on their label. They told us that they’d be stoked to work together and it’s been great since. They have been very open to our ever changing sound from album to album.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the Last Rites | Dire Omens album title?
Thematically, the album was largely inspired by the dramatic and often tragic and dark history of the Canadian Pacific Northwest. A lot of struggle, failed dreams and horror mark the landscape in decaying townsites, ruins, remains of missionary schools, abandoned industrial endeavors etc. If you’re inclined to find and explore them, they tell a story. There’s a grittiness and a darkness that pervades here, and a sinister history that we cope with just beneath the allure of the pristine wilderness that the area is known for. That became a focal point for the tone of these songs. We wanted this album to sound like the soundtrack to a eulogy for these moments in history, or a sermon for the end of the world. We tried to find a title that encompassed that.

Select two songs from Last Rites | Dire Omens and what inspired the lyrics.
Our lyrics develop over an extended period of time. We write vocals phonetically first, focusing only on tone, phrasing and placement. Once that starts to solidify in scratch recordings, the lyrics begin to reveal themselves for the final vocal recording takes. Sometimes it feels a bit like a Rorschach test and can be cathartic. At the risk of sounding intentionally vague, we’d prefer people interpret them for themselves.

Who did the cover art for Last Rites | Dire Omens and how much influence did you have on it?
The cover art was done by George. So, 100% influence hah! The coyote head featured on it was sourced from an animal that had died of natural causes in Northern BC, and was found emerging in the early Spring snowmelt incredibly well preserved.

Has Ulvik ever played live or plan to do so in the future?
ULVIK started as a project with the mindset that it would be an outlet to explore as much varied instrumentation and open ended arrangement as we desired, and wouldn’t be bound to what could be recreated in a live setting. Because of that, we’ve painted ourselves into a corner of it being challenging to organize a live act for much of the existing material. That said, there’s been some interest in us performing live so we are actively exploring options to be able to do that. We would love to recreate and perform a live version of many of the songs. We’re working to hopefully get all the elements aligned for that to happen in the future.

What has it been like to experience your music being released on vinyl?
We are very thankful to be able to document this piece of time on vinyl for ourselves and also to share it with everyone. The music and the visual art put into these releases are all very personal & done with friends and family members. It’s a very cool process. It’s been really enriching to see our work shared amongst the vinyl collecting community, and we’re so thankful and happy to see that our work resonates with folks. The Gold vinyl is especially very nice & likely as close as we’ll ever get to a gold record.

How easy or difficult was it to incorporate a banjo on this album?
As a passion between the two of us, we tend to purchase & collect instruments and share them. We got a banjo with the goal to incorporate it into this album pretty early into the writing process. We both were listening to a lot of folk and country that featured great banjo. We didn’t know, and still don’t truly know how to play it proficiently, but we found nuggets of moments that were fitting & plucked riffs into the album. The difficulty is finding the appropriate moments to include it to add a subtle taste to the album on top of bouzoukis, bowed instruments, organs, accordions, and whatever else we’ve deemed fitting. It’s a lot of fun trial and error, a lot of auditioning, and a lot of material hits the cutting room floor. We’ve learned to not be precious.

Are you still involved with Lucia, and will there be any new music on the horizon?
The Lucia band members are still very connected but Lucia as a project has been on hiatus for many years. We currently don’t have plans to resurrect Lucia. But never say never.

Are you currently involved with any other bands or projects outside of Ulvik or Lucia?
Not at the moment.

What’s up next for Ulvik?
We are exploring new tones and sounds. We’ve established the general direction for the musical foundation of a future ULVIK album that we’re very excited about & we are also exploring the logistics of live performance with added musicians.

Any final words of wisdom?
Don’t leave your instruments in their cases under the bed. Keep them at hand. You don’t need to write or play complete songs. Play them, enjoy them, and ideas will fall out of the ether.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Ulvik on Facebook