Season of Mist are pleased to announce the signing of Russian Karelian Neofolk outfit THEODOR BASTARD. The band will release their brand new album via the label.

THEODORE BASTARD comment on the signing: “We are very happy to share this great news with you – Theodor Bastard band has become a part of the world of Season of Mist. It is a very big event for us. Living in the deep of the wild Karelian forests on the edge of the Ecumene, we can now reach the audience all over the world and tell the myths and legends of our North through our music. We thank the whole team of Season of Mist so much. We were an indie band for over 20 years and all our lives we learned and did everything ourselves. From recording albums to selling them. From manufacturing merch to organizing tours. We have a lot of experience in this, but Season of Mist is the first label really attracted us with its concept and its approach. And we entrust them our music and our future. We know that together we can achieve more.“

In further news, Season of Mist are proud to simultaneously announce the release of the re-issues of ‘Vetvi’ (2015) and the recently released  masterpiece ‘Volch’ya Yagoda’ (2020). Listen to the entire THEODOR BASTARD catalogue HERE. 

THEODOR BASTARD‘s music is set out to take listeners to unexplored and other worlds. From the cold and twilight realms of the marshy swamps of taiga and mossy tundra, to unexplored places where the earthly plane and the spiritual world are separated only by a thin ghostly veil. For over twenty years THEODOR BASTARD have been known for their amazingly serious attitude to the world beyond that very frontier.

THEODOR BASTARD is one of Russia’s most unusual bands representing the electronic Karelian neofolk genre. Also elements of dark wave and trip hop are present in the band’s music. The message doesn’t carry out everyday problems and is mainly focused on mythology and shamanism. The hallmarks of the band are the unique and bewitching lead vocals of multi-talent Yana Veva and the impeccable sound producing skills of Fedor Svolotch, founder of the band who created the band 20 years ago.

From album to album, THEODOR BASTARD carefully and masterly combine many different exotic and traditional instruments. The special northern atmosphere of their albums is created with Nordic nyckelharpa and jouhikko, primeval flutes created from tree roots and shamanic percussion.

“We live in the north of Russia in Karelia, which has a difficult fate” states band leader Fedor Svolotch. He continues: “This is a harsh northern region with unpredictable nature, with spruce and pine forests. Bears are found here. Moose and hare come straight to my house. In Karelia there are beautiful cliffs and clear lakes with fresh water. These are our personal places of power, the places where stones and winds are talking to us. Singing for us a songs of the northern harsh nature”.

THEODOR BASTARD consists of 6 musicians, turning their performances into a dark magic act that sends the audience back to Northern musical traditions, to the Karelian and the Russian folk. The musicians use a lot of electronic devices and ethnic instruments, but also use their own hand-made instruments from stones, human bone and the roots of Karelian birch.