"Nebelhexe":

Wave Gothic Treffen 14 -2005

Park Buhne - Leipzig, DE

"Nebelhexe" is the newest brain-child of Andrea Haugen also known under the moniker "Hagalaz' Runedance". Both of her projects mirror her writings based around ancient Pagan religions and rites and utlizing these mysteries to better understand life and ourselves.

"Nebelhexe" means "Swamp Witch" if recall her correctly, and a lot of her book deals with magically inclined mysteries of the Pagan way of life.

I have been a fan of "Hagalaz' Runedance" for years and have her book "The Ancient Fires of Midgard". I was really excited when her first new album under "Nebelhexe" was released called "Laguz Within the Lake".

Finally we got to see her live.  I knew she worked with some other collaborators and now we could see that at least live, she had a woman playing keyboards, a gutarist and a bassist that accompanied her.

Up until then, it rained quite a bit but just before she took the stage the sun came out. She accredited this to her relationship with Mother Nature and her rituals that put her in good standing with the forces of the weather.

I thought her vocals sounded great. Every song was really cool to hear live. My favorite song of hers from any of her projects is "Celtic Crows". This song has an almost tribal drum quality to it and features some awesome vocal parts on the chorus.

My only disappointment in seeing her live was that the awesome tribal singing chorus parts of this one song were on backing tape and not live (all of her other vocals parts were live though). I had really talked up this song to some friends who are into this type of Pagan-mythos but had not heard her yet - it didn't go over as well as it could have but I do under-stand the constraints of voice in a live situation (My friends still went on to buy her CD so obviously they liked the show).

Some of my other favorite songs that she did live include "My Visual World" and "Totems" both of which sounded great.

Her sound in both projects up until this point, has reflected some rather trademark elements that fall into neo-pagan-folk music with a gothic tinge but for me "Nebelhexe" is much more upbeat in terms of music if not in lyrical elements.

I am a great fan of her mentality and strength which is imparted in the lyrics to her songs and in her statements in the liner notes for her CD's but I really gained insight into her by reading her book.

In it, she discusses several forms of magic including Seidr Shamanism, Animal Spirits, Nature Lore, Runic Magic and how all of these things can be utilized to empower The Self. She also talks about traditional garb of the Germanic Pagans and understanding their myths and how they related to the world around them. She also provides an extensive bibliography for further study into these topics.

Although I would not call myself a "practicing pagan" I do find inspiration in those that live their life by a self-determined code and I especially find affinity for her views on nature and enjoy reading about the Ancient Ways.

I am Nordic in my ancestry and appreciate learning about the Vikings and their methods and I am also Germanic so she covers both thoroughly and this is an added enjoyment for me both in terms of her music and her writings.

She is an absolute talent and I look forward to her next works in either medium.

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