HÉR to Release Debut Album “Monochrome” on January 30th, Lead Single + Video ‘Needles and Bark’ Out Now

Season of Mist are proud to welcome HÉR.

Emerging from the northern shores of Poland, HÉR are both seekers and storytellers. Their upcoming debut album, Monochrome, weaves bowed strings, raw incantations and entrancing percussion into ritual soundscapes that conjure the vast and mythical landscape of the North. The album’s lead single, “Needles and Bark”, calls on the enduring spirit of Icelandic fjords and Old Norse myths, inviting us into a meditation on decay and endurance.

“The pine on the rocks dries and dies / needles neither protect nor the bark / why should he live long?”

Monochrome comes out January 30, 2026 on Season of Mist.
Pre-order & Pre-save: https://orcd.co/hermonochrome

“We are honored and deeply thrilled to announce our signing to Season of Mist”, HÉR says. “To begin our musical journey with such a renowned and visionary label is both a privilege and a powerful affirmation of our path.

“HÉR — meaning ‘here’ in Icelandic — is more than a name; it is a call to presence. And here, in this moment, something new begins. Our collaboration with Season of Mist opens a gateway to share our sound, our myth, and our vision with a wider world”.

“This signing marks not only our debut”, HÉR continues, “but also the crossing of a threshold — from the roots of Old Norse poetry and northern mysticism into a vast, boundless landscape of sound and emotion. We stand ‘here,’ united by rhythm, voice, and story, ready to bring the raw essence of the North to those who are willing to listen, feel, and be transformed.

Sit here with us — sestu hérna — and witness what begins now”.

Tracklist:
1. Chant (10:47)
2. Needles and Bark (4:57)
3. Going Down (4:19)
4. Patience in Observation (3:02)
5. Slipknot (6:24)
6. Praise the Day (6:08)
7. Farewell (6:32)
Full runtime: 42:11

“Hér” in Icelandic means „here”. It is a very clear calling from the band to the audience: be here, experience, be inspired, it is happening now, and it is the essence of participating in our artistic expression. HÉR was formed in Gdańsk, northern Poland. Five independent, strong musical personalities met “here”—in a specific place and time—to create communitas that are both unique and harmonious.

The music the band proposes carries the listener to 11th-century Old Norse wisdom poetry. The first inspiration for this artistic meeting were the poems of the Poetic Edda. Hér reveals wild, root-like, undiscovered musical spaces, the clash of worlds, and a glimpse of the otherworld. It uses raw means of expression and sounds, as raw as the North itself: trembling throat singing, increasing trance-like rhythm, gliding over the violin strings like over an ice surface. We start here: Iceland, the beginning of Europe. It is a musical meditation on a place, growing out of specific soil, reaching to the roots of Norse mythology but not stopping there. It is not only the wisdom of the Vikings, Odin’s recommendations for those who stand at the gates of Valhalla. The threshold of the otherworld leads further to universal, human, fundamental experiences.

By exploring the human nature described in Norse mythology, the musicians make a deep insight into the emotions embedded in its verses. They bring out the dark beauty of the North and its extremes: fire and ice, violence and tenderness, bravery and care, the brutality of war and the solace that peace brings, struggle and feast, the milky sweetness of honey and the salty tang of blood, love and hatred, birth and death, beginning and end, terror and awe…

Sestu hérna, sit here… sit here and listen, sit here and grow, sit here and drift away.

Line-up:
Maciej Świniarski — Vocal, Percussion
Tomasz Chyła — Vocal, Violin, Synth Percussion
Piotr Chęcki — Saxophone, Percussion
Tomasz Sadecki — Bass Guitar, Synth, Percussion
Sławek Koryzno — Drums, Percussion

Production Credits:
Recorded at Monochrom Studio, Gniewoszów, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland.
Produced & Engineered by Ignacy Gruszecki.
Mixed & Mastered by Marcin Bors at Fonoplastykon, Wrocław, Poland.

Guest Musicians:
Magdalena Kuraś „Freya”

Cover Art:
Mary Zaleska

Photography:
Daria Szczygieł (https://dariaszczygiel.com/)