A Conversation with Kim Larsen from Of the Wand the Moon

October 26, 2021October 26, 2021 / Ryan Chapman / Leave a comment

It is getting colder, and darker out these days in New Hampshire and the changing of the seasons means the darker and introspective elements of myself come out. Nothing is as dark and as introspective as the music of Kim Larsen and his project Of the Wand and the Moon from Denmark. To wrap up my articles on this brilliant and emotional dark folk project Kim took time out of his busy schedule to answer some in-depth questions in the interview below. He gives us glimpses of what lies behind the music and why he spent 22 years creating a world of such stark, and compelling music that has touched so many people over the years.

I appreciate Kim taking the time to answer my questions knowing how reclusive and private of a person he is. He shows depth, intelligence, humor and care in his answers and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. His new album “Your Love Can’t Hold this Wreath of Sorrow” is out now and it is absolutely required listening (you can purchase the album with the links following the end of the interview).

Hello Kim, thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me!

I guess my first question for you, is could you tell us your origin story Of the Wand and the Moon and how it was conceived?

“Hello Ryan, thank you for the questions. It has been a while since I gave any interviews. So please excuse me if some answers might be short.

Somehow it feels like walking in your own thoughts and then someone coming up asking you about something. Caught off guard.

But I’ll do my best.

I used to play in a doom metal band called Saturnus. At the same time, I was very much into music such as Current 93 and playing classical guitar. So, I incorporated this more, apocalyptic folk music into Saturnus (alongside the doom metal). Eventually the more acoustic ideas and compositions became too many to use for that band, and along the way I wanted to have a purer outlet for those ideas. And the other guys didn’t have the same love for this kind of dark/apocalyptic folk music. So, a natural step was to do my own project. In the beginning I hooked up with a female vocal duo that was doing singing in old Norse etc. But we weren’t really on the same page. I wanted something a bit darker, I guess. So, in the end I thought it be easier to just go ahead and do everything myself.”

At one point during an interview, you mentioned the style of music for Of the Wand and the Moon as “loner folk” could give us a more detailed definition of “loner folk” and what it genuinely means to you?

“It was a term that I heard from my co-producer Mikkel who recorded the new album. Guess it was more coined on musicians such as Dave Bixby, Bob Theil, Simon Finn etc etc. People who kind of got lost in time and were rediscovered decades after making some legendary albums. However, I felt somehow it matched pretty well where I had moved on to musically and lyrically. I really feel my music moved in another direction from when I first started out Of The Wand And The Moon. Not sure if you could call it folk nowadays even. Of course, there is some essence from the beginning but…yeah. There’s a lot of jazzy trumpets on the new stuff. And more of a 60s rock/folk band feel over it all, I think. It’s difficult for me to explain the style to be honest.

Anyway, loved that description…”

A common element to your music and lyrics is the concepts of love lost and regained and lost again. I noticed this as a very common theme in most of your discography, what made you want to pursue these themes to begin with?

“Never really planned out that this is the way the lyrics or music should be. Just my nature as a person, I guess. Hard to say what sparked that line of expression. But of course, things happening in my life pushed these thoughts and lyrics. Perhaps just trying to give a little back to the world what the world had to offer me …haha.”

How would you describe your creation process, are there any rituals or interesting things you do to help you write your music and come up with your ideas?

“No rituals really. Just must be in the mood and wanting to pick up the guitar or fumble around on the keyboard or whatever. Sometimes I can think of a line or watch something in a movie which will inspire a quote or a line. But usually just sitting down with the guitar. Compose the music. And then the lyrics will come after. The name Of The Wand And The Moon came into place as I used to do my music at night. And at the beginning I was somewhat into magick, runes etc. hence the “Wand” reference.”

Another element I noticed in your themes is nature and old faiths and such what drew you to these ideas for your music for Of the Wand and the Moon?

“I think this was mostly in the beginning of the band. I would read a lot about runes and magick as it was an interest at the time. Go to the royal/university library in Copenhagen and go through books on rune stones, mythology, and stuff like that. It’s more of a personal and intuitive thing these days. Like seeing signs and runes in building’s shapes for instance. But not really a big topic in the lyrical universe now.”

How important is Denmark to you and your writing process? Does it play a key role in influencing your ideas at all?

“I guess it has a huge role as the winters here are very long and dark. And it takes a big toll on my mood. Not good for my depressions. Probably not good for my production in those months either. But perhaps some work comes out of it after all.”

Another thing I noticed in your albums and music videos is a homage to old black and white films and you directly quote from these films too in some of your songs. What are the names of some of these movies and what do you recommend to our readers?

“Think those movies just somehow made sense to use. I have a nostalgia for those old movies. Love the works of Fritz Lang. So, the movie Spione was an obvious choice to add to some video. And movies like Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Le Feu Follet, Bonjour Tristesse etc. And later movies such as Taxi Driver had a lot of impact on me. I could go on. Anyway, just seemed to fit perfectly with the universe of the music.”

Of the Wand the Moon has been lumped into the neo-folk scene for many years now, what is your take on the scene and how has your experiences been with the musicians and bands you played with over the years?

“I am really grateful for all the experiences and the friendships from the scene. Also, people I was a fan of became friends. Had very magickal moments along the way for sure. But I don’t really want to get stuck. And repeat and repeat. Things will inevitably change…the way of life.”

Where do you see the dark folk scene going now in 2021? Nighttime Nightrhymes came out back in 1999. Has there been a huge shift in interest since then from your personal perspective?

“I don’t really sit and ponder about where things are changing regarding music. Maybe some young people will come along and pick up the torch and blow our minds. Who knows…?

All I know is that I’m always striving to make my own music better. For me. In my own little world. Whether or not people will like it.”

What was the main influences and feelings you were going through in the writing process of “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow”?

“The usual, I think. The pain of lost love. The pain of having to move along alone. Nostalgia. Solitude. Memories. All the good things in life haha…”

There is an almost romantic urbanism found throughout the album, prior Of the Wand the Moon albums had a distinct nature/pastoral feel while the new album is the complete opposite. What made you want to go in this direction?

“I just wanted to open up the universe of the music to not get stuck in the old ways. To be honest I think I am somehow going back in time to when I was in my teens. The memories and the sounds I was exposed to then. As a kid I would go with my friends to these abandoned sites, run down areas where I grew up. Where nature took over the concrete and what have you. Music wise there is a straight line from my father’s record collection as well, I think. The bass sound. The tic tac bass is the sound of the records my father had and that I was listening to when I was very young. The “Je t’aime moi non plus” single with Serge Gainsbourg (with “Jane B” on the B side). The Beatles “Rubber Soul” and “Help”. The trumpet fetish I think came from watching an ancient Danish crime series called “En by i provinsen”. The intro theme had some trumpet that stuck with me I think. My father was also a big fan of jazz. Miles Davis and such. I would also sometimes record the music and dialogue from movies off the TV on my cassette tape recorder when I was a kid. Like “Escape From New York”, “The Warriors” etc. A lot of these things made a big impact on me.

I am curious about your reasoning for writing the songs “Fall From View” and “Williamsburg Bridge” they seem to be almost jarring to the flow of the album in a completely good way. What message were you trying to convey in those tracks?

“Williamsburg Bridge was a kind of intro to Nothing For Me Here. And the title was a homage to a night walk with a good friend of mine, Luke, over that same bridge when I visited New York years ago. Again, perhaps some reconnection with imagery of my childhood memories, movies, and such. And all the sudden, seeing/being in it myself in some strange way these many years after. “Fall From View” was a somewhat purging/cleansing of depressive thoughts. Not sure how to otherwise put it.”

The trumpet plays a huge part in a lot of the songs in the new album (it seemed to be used sparingly in “The Lone Descent”) what about this instrument? Because to me it fits perfectly in the mood and feel of the new album.

“I met Bo Rande the trumpet player many years ago, watching him play for the band Blue Foundation. Which he is still playing in. I asked him to play on “The Lone Descent” album and he agreed. While he recorded the stuff for that album, I was in such an awe of his playing, his technique, that I said to myself, “the next album I will do he has to have more songs to play on.” So made room on the new songs for him to throw in a solo or a part. Can’t praise him enough. At the recording sessions, everything he recorded we could use. Was just a matter of choosing. So wonderful.”

What is the overall message you want listeners to feel and understand about “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” what should we pay attention to or be aware of in the listening experience?

“I just hope people will enjoy the music. There is no message as such I want to pass on.

It’s a painting I painted. Just enjoy it for what it is.”

Out of all the Of the Wand and the Moon albums you created, which one would you say is your most favorite album as well as your least favorite?

“The new album is my favourite. I don’t have a least favourite. They all had their place in time.

I really don’t listen to my old stuff. Apart from playing it live. When it’s done it’s done for me, and I’m off to another place trying to do something new.”

What are some of your interests outside of music? Are there any surprising aspects of you (Kim Larsen) that fans would be interested to know?

“Haha…don’t really know what would be interesting. I love taking rides on my bicycle around Copenhagen in the summertime (which is too short). Sometimes taking rides to places or streets I haven’t been down before. Discovering new areas of the city and surroundings.”

How would you describe your music to someone who may not be familiar with Of the Wand and the Moon?

“It’s really difficult for me as I’m not a music journalist. Perhaps, melancholic music that were inspired by 60s soundtracks and acts such as Lee Hazlewood, Serge Gainsbourg, The Beatles, loner folk and of course my starting point of the dark folk/neofolk/whatever genre. Apart from that I don’t know…”

And finally, do you have any closing words for our readers?

“Love is made of dreams and dreams are made of hope and hope will smother dreams and dreams will smother love! But remember…the tears are free!”

CD: https://tesco-germany.com/…/of-the-wand-the-moon-your…/

Bandcamp: https://tescogermany.bandcamp.com/…/your-love-cant-hold…

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3NyIa5rnbzdjLg6cJiEbbF

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wandmoon

Of the Wand and The Moon “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” Review

October 8, 2021October 11, 2021 / Ryan Chapman / Leave a comment

It is about 10:30PM here in New Hampshire and I have a glass of scotch nearby as I write this. The nights are growing cooler, and the air feels like the crisp crunch of fallen leaves. The smell of chimney smoke permeates the cloudless star-filled sky reminding me that the slow death and decay of the earth is upon us. This time of year, when the Autumn Equinox has arrived is a perfect time than any to hear the haunting lamentations of Kim Larsen’s new Of the Wand and the Moon album “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow”. I was graciously given a promo of the new album and got to spend a long, long time giving it a listen and think it is one of Larsen’s best works. It has been eleven long years since “The Lone Descent” and I can say “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow is a fantastic follow-up in every sense of the word.

One thing about Of the Wand and the Moon is I always stumbled upon his albums at times that are very difficult in my life. I always felt a sense of synchronicity when I listen to Larsen’s music. It is like the music and lyrics reflect my life in the uncanniest way all the years I have been a fan. Larsen has a supernatural knack for writing music that not only is dark and depressing in nature but also so relevant to my life and many others who have gotten the pleasure of stumbling upon his music. “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” arrived in my inbox during an incredibly painful transition in my life. Every lyric, note, and image just overwhelmed me with emotion I haven’t felt in a long while. I am brave enough to admit that this album caused me to get misty eyed on more than one occasion because of how on-point the album parallels to my recent heartache.

I would call “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” an album that is incredibly cinematic and almost a concept album in many ways. If you were to describe the highs, lows, beginnings and ends of relationships this album eerily hits all those moments and feelings to a raw, vulnerable degree. For me, I was in a two-year long relationship which took me to the old, beautiful, dirty streets of Dublin, Ireland. The idea of romance in a city and the inevitable end is very pronounced in a multitude of ways in “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” Larsen takes many daring streets of almost making Of the Wand and the Moon urbanized compared to the typical rural, and pastoral feel of earlier albums. At first this may sound jarring, but it works in many incredible, clever, and creative ways. I think it makes the music more powerful to hear because a lot of my past pains happened in big cities.

To me the city is a place with so many stories, people, thoughts, and feelings. When I wandered the streets of Dublin, NYC, Salt Lake City, Boston, and Portland I could feel and even see a dreamlike romance of two lovers in a smoky bar I could see a jilted lover openly weeping on a park bench underneath dirty streetlight. Larsen completely takes these concepts and runs with them. The two songs that really hit these ideas to the fullest extent is “Let’s Take a Ride (My Love)” and “There’s Nothing for Me Here” I cannot stop listening to these songs because not only are they beautiful, but catchy (which is unusual for Of the Wand and The Moon).

There is a ton of wonderful dark folk songs to be had in the album and all the songs hit so many emotions. Though, there are three songs that are unique that took me longer to understand and digest. The first track “Fall From View” it starts out as an ambient, amorphous entity that starts quiet and goes down a chaotic (even nightmarish) rabbit hole that is very uncomfortable to listen to (in the best possible way) to me the song reminds me of the many sleepless nights where I can’t shut down my brain and I think the worst of the worst. Then, I eventually go into restless sleep and have nightmares that haunt me even when I have been long awake. The second track is “Les Journées Sans Fin Et Les Nuits Solitaires (Endless Days and Lonely Nights)” it is a very quiet song that reminds me of the “Nighttime Nightrhymes” song “The Substance of Simplicity” it has this beautiful, airy, and ethereal female vocal chant happening throughout the song and then a female monologue spoken in French filters through the chants and gentle acoustic strumming. To me it is a song giving the perspective of relationships and how one wishes things could have been different and feels guilt around what transpired, also there is a sense of longing and thinking of when things were beautiful and full of life in the beginning. The final unique track is a quick minute and a half instrumental called “Williamsburg Bridge” to me it is the closest you could get to the atmosphere, and energy of life in the big city at night it sounds so lonely and isolating even among the roiling sea of humanity around you. This quick song really sticks with you long after you hear it.

One thing that really stands out with not only “The Lone Descent” but “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” is when Kim Larsen incorporates more guest musicians to his vision. You notice a massive surge in sound and feeling in the songs and almost a bombast compared to quiet contemplation in earlier albums. I think with contributing musicians to Of the Wand and the Moon’s music it makes the emotions more intense in the songs. The one standout is the trumpeting work of Bo Rande never have I heard a trumpet make my eyes well up more than the trumpet work in “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” it somehow gives the songs a whole new meaning and fits the citylike feel of the songs to an even greater extent. Rande’s talents give me a whole new perspective on the beauty of the iconic brass horn and how it can be used perfectly in dark folk music.

There are so many dichotomies found throughout “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” there is a constant sense of movement, transitioning, and eventual healing after so much pain and heartache. When an album can genuinely hit your core, it is a masterpiece in my opinion. To me “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” is exactly this. I think Kim Larsen nailed it in ever sense of the word yet again. I sense this album is going to get many, many hundreds of listens in the foreseeable future. I have finished my glass of scotch and feel like after going through the journey that is “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath of Sorrow” I can honestly say it helped me close that chapter of Dublin in my life, and now I can move forward to new horizons though guarded but hopeful all the same.

Rating 10/10

Bandcamp: https://tescogermany.bandcamp.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wandmoon

Of the Wand and the Moon…When Love Ends

July 10, 2021 / Ryan Chapman / Leave a comment

I have once again been on a bit of hiatus with my blog and I am sorry for being so behind on things. It has been a really stressful couple months with both my personal life and stuff happening within my family. The one constant that has eaten up my emotional and mental energy was a two year long distance relationship that came to an end in the most awful of ways. I started thinking more about my past relationships and how often I end up choosing the wrong people or the timing is just not right. Love is one of those emotions that has so many roads and meandering paths that lead to good as well as bad outcomes. It has led to me thinking deeply about the concept and how as of now I have yet to find a relationship that is good and stays that way (even when difficulties arise).

The more I think about this the more I have come to the conclusion that there is one musical project that has always been there for me to help me understand and navigate the painful aspects of relationships ending as well as the experiences dealing with unrequited love. That project is Of the Wand and the Moon which was conceived by Kim Larsen out of Denmark. I first heard about Of the Wand and the Moon (:OTWATM:) from Don Anderson of Agalloch fame. I remember to this day emailing him and asking for suggestions about neofolk projects that helped influence Agalloch’s music (especially from The Mantle), and he recommended :OTWATM:. So I started scouring the internet to learn more about this project and found the album “Nighttime Nightrhymes” that came out back in 1999. When I received the CD in the mail I put it into my stereo and was immediately blown away about how beautiful, dark, and painful the music was. There was a stripped down, and vulnerable aspect to the album that was mostly acoustic guitar and whispered lamentations. It immediately hit me in such a way that when I even hear “Nighttime Nightrhymes” to this day I am still awestruck at how much it hits home. The is one specific song on the album that I listen to all the time (probably in thousands over the years) called “I Crave For You” the lyrics are as follows:

“I crave for you
And the incense of night
To bathe
In the flame of your light
Cold pale in sorrow
In the tears that followed
The years that swallowed
The innocence of my love
I crave for you…”

I think this song above all other Of the Wand and the Moon songs stands out as the most on point song that has summarized my relationship history over the years. I was always put into really difficult situations and was tricked by what I thought love was. In the end I was always put through a veritable buzzsaw and came out scarred and bloody every single time and it took me years and years to recover and be myself again. But the thing is this has happened over, over, and over again. I have yet to be in a loving relationship that helped me heal my scars and stem my blood loss. I have become so disillusioned and jaded to the point that I didn’t even think of dating for almost 5 years. And now the cycle of pain has started anew, and now Of the Wand and the Moon is consistently in rotation to remind me that Kim Larsen has been through his own relationship hellscapes and the emotions that come from navigating those hellscapes. What I can say about sad and dark music is that it has always helped me move towards healing because it reminds me that I am not as alone as I think I am.

I think another aspect of :OTWATM:’s music is how much it reflects the dreams I have had over the years and the feelings and emotions that come with them. Whenever a relationship ends in the most awful and traumatic ways in my life there are always recurring places or situations I am put into within my subconscious. There is another song from Of the Wand and the Moon, “I Called Your Name” that reflects what sometimes happens in my dreams:

“A fire lost at the cost of love
my stare bares witness to the demons I fought
the things we won’t do for love

And I called your name in vain – in vain
loves my bane and time marches on

Four years till this day in this slow decay
a prayer for an end and you’re far away
you’re far away…”

Typically I see myself in a wood that has multiple rooted paths, or I see myself in a giant house that has stairways that lead nowhere or somewhere. One time I would take a path or a stairway and end up being in a downtown part of a city that I am familiar with, and I see through the sea of people my ex walking around or with someone else and I always yell at the top of my lungs their name and they don’t listen. It is like I am surrounded by soundproof glass or in a different parallel world that only allows me to see over interacting with them.

My mind is such a vast and sometimes scary place to navigate because when I love someone so deeply I am devoted and loyal and true to them to a fault and it often takes me a long time (years even) to get over someone I have fallen so deeply in love with. I sense their energy, scent, and see them everywhere in my peripheral vision. I don’t know why I get haunted by my past loves but in some weird way it helps me find closure (it just takes longer). All these thoughts and feelings always fall back to the songs Kim Larsen has written. His lyrics are so on point and the emotions and feelings he invokes in his music exactly reflects every single one of my experiences of losing love and the pain that follows with it. A song that really kind of hits all the points in my experiences, healing and recovery is “Can I Erase the Demon?”:

“I see it’s growing darker
And darker still
I see my heart growing darker
And darker still
I felt your heart growing darker
And darker still
I see this life growing darker
And darker still

Can I erase the demon?
Can I ever fill the hole?
Will I see the stars
And start anew?”

It is always such a dark and melancholic moment dealing with the aftermath of a long, hard, and loving (?) relationship especially with what I am currently navigating these past couple weeks. I thought I would not feel all the anguish, loss, and shock of losing someone I love but it happened again and I hope it is the last time I am going through these trials and tribulations in regards to relationships. I definitely feel like I have paid my dues tenfold with the most immense heartache that came with it. I am ready to press forward and find someone who loves me for me and will be there with me through the good and the bad. I am forever grateful to have stumbled upon Of the Wand and the Moon. The music has been my constant companion and reminded me that the feelings and emotions I have dealt with are normal and not too uncommon either. Misery, anger, sadness, wistfulness, nostalgia and memory are always going to be commonalities in regards to love and relationships. If I can think of one last song that helps me move forward would be “Watch the Skyline Catch Fire”:

“Words ring hollow
Clouds draw in
Discouraged
Spring rides on
Embrace the solitude
The fruit of life
Sorrow deep
Impenetrable
Watch the skyline catch fire
Strangers come and go
There’s death on your lips
I never knew
Our tears are water
Under the bridge
A distant memory
Before I go to sleep
Watch the skyline catch fire
Swallows come and go
I was never really here
But these streets know my name
Behold…”