photo credit Joel Ståhl "they never saw // we were stoned // from crying // in my head // I know just // where you were // hiding.."
The utterly grounded, bending acoustic folk magic of "Faint Birds" by Badlands, aka Swedish transboundary multi-instrumentalist, sound designer, composer, producer Catharina Jaunviksna, and from her upcoming new album "Nobody Dies", feels so unique, unto itself, vast, spiritual as to feel less than just a song but more like a cultural expression. The tapestry of percussive instrumentation, the jangly melancholia, drones of sound like nature itself, pedal steel guitar sirens, big massive cello trances and Catharina's vocal countenance that sounds at once, vulnerable, open and tapped into the universal nature of things.
Catharina expands, "'Faint Birds' is about being numb and washed-out; a state where our person can only hear and register subtle details, like the faint birds over the sea, in the distance. But despite this detachment, the song is still indicating a longing for something. Like a quiet prayer for renewal, to be able to feel again."
[Badlands’ 2022 release, Call to Love, was an immensely personal body of work full of juxtapositions, at once both meditative and restless, dreamy yet carnal — oftentimes within the same song — the way that love tends to be. In 2023, a special remix version, Call to Love: Rendered, was released featuring remixes by Art Feynman, Ikonika, Odd Nosdam, Lost Under Heaven and Cooly G amongst others.
Now Catharina Jaunviksna’s 4th album as Badlands expands her solo project into a suite of cracked folk-ambient songforms, binding voice, detuned strings and salvaged electronics into a meta-fictional drift. Nobody Dies plays like a séance of fractured ballads and spectral atmospheres, somewhere between dream-pop haze and post-apocalyptic ritual. Guest presences from Maggie Björklund (Jack White, Mark Lanegan) on pedal steel and folklorist Ida Mitchell on cello lend haunted textures, while collage artist OSKARP folds the visuals into its blur of fiction and memory. Sitting in a lineage from Broadcast and Grouper through to Carla dal Forno and the wyrd folk of England’s Hidden Reverse, it’s a singular zone — lo-fi storytelling and occult drift for fractured times.]
+ + +
https://www.instagram.com/badlandssounds
https://badlands.nu/
https://badlandssounds.bandcamp.com/
Today, Badlands – also known as transboundary Swedish producer, composer and sound designer Catharina Jaunviksna – released the meditative single + video “Faint Birds.” First premiered via Under the Radar, it’s the latest glimpse into her upcoming new album Nobody Dies, out October 10 via RITE. The wistful track drifts with a gentle, dreamlike pull, yet beneath the calm lies a deep yearning to awaken – to reconnect with one’s inner self.
Catharina expands, "'Faint Birds' is about being numb and washed-out; a state where our person can only hear and register subtle details, like the faint birds over the sea, in the distance. But despite this detachment, the song is still indicating a longing for something. Like a quiet prayer for renewal, to be able to feel again."
Badlands’ 2022 release, Call to Love, was an immensely personal body of work full of juxtapositions, at once both meditative and restless, dreamy yet carnal — oftentimes within the same song — the way that love tends to be. In 2023, a special remix version, Call to Love: Rendered, was released featuring remixes by Art Feynman, Ikonika, Odd Nosdam, Lost Under Heaven and Cooly G amongst others.
Now Catharina Jaunviksna’s 4th album as Badlands expands her solo project into a suite of cracked folk-ambient songforms, binding voice, detuned strings and salvaged electronics into a meta-fictional drift. Nobody Dies plays like a séance of fractured ballads and spectral atmospheres, somewhere between dream-pop haze and post-apocalyptic ritual. Guest presences from Maggie Björklund (Jack White, Mark Lanegan) on pedal steel and folklorist Ida Mitchell on cello lend haunted textures, while collage artist OSKARP folds the visuals into its blur of fiction and memory. Sitting in a lineage from Broadcast and Grouper through to Carla dal Forno and the wyrd folk of England’s Hidden Reverse, it’s a singular zone — lo-fi storytelling and occult drift for fractured times.
Catharina expands, “‘Nobody Dies’ is mainly about war, delusion and what it means to be human. It tells the story of a character in a broken apocalyptic landscape who is forced to invent and ascribe new meaning to things in order to endure existence and sow new hope.” She continues, “It’s a comment on the current state of the world and where we are heading, about deception, but also about making the best with what you got. It’s about the importance of art and human interaction, and the striving to find a way, even at times when everything seems hopeless (and even if that sometimes means delusion).”
Jaunviksna has been operating under the moniker of Badlands since 2011, under which she makes lush tracks from a wide palette of inspiration; stretching from post-punk, folk and ambient scapes, to electro, dub and gritty techno working with analog electronics, sampling & organic orchestration. She’s the founder of the imprint and production company RITE based in the legendary Tambourine Studios in Malmö, Sweden; her platform for making transboundary arts and documentary, original music and sound design for film and theater, as well as production for and collaborations with other labels and artists.
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed)
[Badlands’ 2022 release, Call to Love, was an immensely personal body of work full of juxtapositions, at once both meditative and restless, dreamy yet carnal — oftentimes within the same song — the way that love tends to be. In 2023, a special remix version, Call to Love: Rendered, was released featuring remixes by Art Feynman, Ikonika, Odd Nosdam, Lost Under Heaven and Cooly G amongst others.
Now Catharina Jaunviksna’s 4th album as Badlands expands her solo project into a suite of cracked folk-ambient songforms, binding voice, detuned strings and salvaged electronics into a meta-fictional drift. Nobody Dies plays like a séance of fractured ballads and spectral atmospheres, somewhere between dream-pop haze and post-apocalyptic ritual. Guest presences from Maggie Björklund (Jack White, Mark Lanegan) on pedal steel and folklorist Ida Mitchell on cello lend haunted textures, while collage artist OSKARP folds the visuals into its blur of fiction and memory. Sitting in a lineage from Broadcast and Grouper through to Carla dal Forno and the wyrd folk of England’s Hidden Reverse, it’s a singular zone — lo-fi storytelling and occult drift for fractured times.]
Lyrics:
They never saw
We were stoned from crying
In my head
I know just where you were hiding
At a distance I heard ‘em sing
And I can't feel a thing
Faint birds
Faint birds
Over the sea
Never saw
They were a storm from dying
In my bed
I can feel where you were lying
With your body so close to me
And I can't feel a thing
Faint birds
Faint birds
Over the sea
We were stoned from crying
In my head
I know just where you were hiding
At a distance I heard ‘em sing
And I can't feel a thing
Faint birds
Faint birds
Over the sea
Never saw
They were a storm from dying
In my bed
I can feel where you were lying
With your body so close to me
And I can't feel a thing
Faint birds
Faint birds
Over the sea
credits
released September 9, 2025
Music, lyrics & production: Catharina Jaunviksna
Instrumentation:
Ida Mitchell - cello
Maggie Björklund - pedal steel guitar
Catharina Jaunviksna - mandolin, bass, guitar, cajon, percussions, piano
-Robb Donker CurtiusMusic, lyrics & production: Catharina Jaunviksna
Instrumentation:
Ida Mitchell - cello
Maggie Björklund - pedal steel guitar
Catharina Jaunviksna - mandolin, bass, guitar, cajon, percussions, piano
+ + +
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/badlandssounds
https://badlands.nu/
https://badlandssounds.bandcamp.com/
Today, Badlands – also known as transboundary Swedish producer, composer and sound designer Catharina Jaunviksna – released the meditative single + video “Faint Birds.” First premiered via Under the Radar, it’s the latest glimpse into her upcoming new album Nobody Dies, out October 10 via RITE. The wistful track drifts with a gentle, dreamlike pull, yet beneath the calm lies a deep yearning to awaken – to reconnect with one’s inner self.
Catharina expands, "'Faint Birds' is about being numb and washed-out; a state where our person can only hear and register subtle details, like the faint birds over the sea, in the distance. But despite this detachment, the song is still indicating a longing for something. Like a quiet prayer for renewal, to be able to feel again."
Badlands’ 2022 release, Call to Love, was an immensely personal body of work full of juxtapositions, at once both meditative and restless, dreamy yet carnal — oftentimes within the same song — the way that love tends to be. In 2023, a special remix version, Call to Love: Rendered, was released featuring remixes by Art Feynman, Ikonika, Odd Nosdam, Lost Under Heaven and Cooly G amongst others.
Now Catharina Jaunviksna’s 4th album as Badlands expands her solo project into a suite of cracked folk-ambient songforms, binding voice, detuned strings and salvaged electronics into a meta-fictional drift. Nobody Dies plays like a séance of fractured ballads and spectral atmospheres, somewhere between dream-pop haze and post-apocalyptic ritual. Guest presences from Maggie Björklund (Jack White, Mark Lanegan) on pedal steel and folklorist Ida Mitchell on cello lend haunted textures, while collage artist OSKARP folds the visuals into its blur of fiction and memory. Sitting in a lineage from Broadcast and Grouper through to Carla dal Forno and the wyrd folk of England’s Hidden Reverse, it’s a singular zone — lo-fi storytelling and occult drift for fractured times.
Catharina expands, “‘Nobody Dies’ is mainly about war, delusion and what it means to be human. It tells the story of a character in a broken apocalyptic landscape who is forced to invent and ascribe new meaning to things in order to endure existence and sow new hope.” She continues, “It’s a comment on the current state of the world and where we are heading, about deception, but also about making the best with what you got. It’s about the importance of art and human interaction, and the striving to find a way, even at times when everything seems hopeless (and even if that sometimes means delusion).”
Jaunviksna has been operating under the moniker of Badlands since 2011, under which she makes lush tracks from a wide palette of inspiration; stretching from post-punk, folk and ambient scapes, to electro, dub and gritty techno working with analog electronics, sampling & organic orchestration. She’s the founder of the imprint and production company RITE based in the legendary Tambourine Studios in Malmö, Sweden; her platform for making transboundary arts and documentary, original music and sound design for film and theater, as well as production for and collaborations with other labels and artists.
Badlands, aka Swedish multi-instrumentalist / singer songwriter Catharina Jaunviksna, producer, composer, new album "Nobody Dies", cultural music, folk music, baroque pop, dream pop, indie pop, "Faint Birds",
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