The Hidden Genre, pt 5: A TERGO LUPI
Uncovering Pagan Music
Last time, I described how the light had eventually dawned. PAGAN MUSIC had presented itself to me like a newly-discovered horizon, just waiting to be explored. I was flush with success. I remember telling both my wife and my best musical buddy that I had a new thing, and pagan music was going to be my next obsession.
For context, I spent most of the 2010s going down the John Zorn rabbit hole, and both my wife and my friend had been forced into a sort of vicarious Zorn experience of their own. They had seen and heard enough to understand how serious I am about musical exploration, and thus the gravity of what I was now saying about pagan music.
It has to be said that Mrs Grouse was pleased with the change in direction.
The concept had crystallized and I was fully in the zone - primed for musical discovery. And like a gift from on high, a band called A Tergo Lupi appeared.
As intimated by the two tiny human figures on the cover, the band is a duo, an Italian male and female. Fabio plays a variety of drums, generally frame drums that are roughly similar to an Irish bodhrán, and Camilla plays a stringed instrument called a tagelharpa, which can be thought of as an early version of a cello. Both of them sing, there's a bit of additional small percussion, and another aspect or two. Although the sound is very full, it’s almost exclusively created by this small group of instruments.
In terms of creativity, there's a whole other layer to consider here. Something I learned while corresponding with them is that band member Camilla actually custom builds most of the instruments used by the band! Here you can see short videos of her playing a variety of her creations. It’s great to see the close-up view of the instrument being played, especially because there’s no real equivalent to the fingering technique in modern instruments. These are instruments from an earlier time.
In many ways, the band is reaching back to the past for inspiration. For example, rather than the steel or synthetic strings that we generally expect to see on modern instruments, the tagelharpa uses horsehair strings. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the very earliest examples of stringed instruments - and we’re peering way off into the misty, distant past here - used the same type of strings.
Camilla began building these instruments before the formation of the band. In fact, her ingenuity and drive to create was a crucial factor in the band coming together.
In other words, Camilla created the instruments, and the universe, in turn, created the circumstances for the instruments to be used.
On paper, the raw musical ingredients are similar to Heilung, but A Tergo Lupi cook up a sound that’s distinct in at least a couple of different ways. For one, the voices are handled much differently in A Tergo Lupi. Camilla's vocal style and sound are quite distinct from those of Heilung's female singer. And while Fabio's resonant voice is the more prominent one in A Tergo Lupi, there's very little throat singing. Instead, Fabio's deep, rich baritone is showcased with many long, solidly-held notes. His style of singing is resonant, full-bodied, and occasionally brilliant.
For instance, check out "Konimm Heim." At first, his voice sounds as if it may be mysteriously emanating from an overgrown, craggy opening in the earth. But then he moves into an impressive, confident bellow that, in striking fashion, holds the last few notes of the stanza. He really lays into it, too! You can practically hear it echo off something in the distance, presumably a mountain or a thick forest.
That moment (01:21) is electrifying. And when that section comes back around for the second time, at the very end of the stanza (04:16), he lands on a note that’s a whole octave higher than it was the first time around.
That’s a moment that may fry your circuitry.
Although both bands utilize the tagelharpa in their sound, A Tergo Lupi use it more extensively, and in ways that are inventive and subtle. While the band does use some field recordings of nature sounds (and even a little bit of synthesizer), most of the lushness and ambience is obtained by manipulating recordings of Camilla's tagelharpa. In other words, the recording of this ancient stringed instrument is tweaked and sometimes even mixed in with other sounds. That concoction is then situated behind and below the main instruments in the recording.
A good example of this can be heard on "Hoar Frost." There's a low, slow throb that underpins the whole song. My guess is it’s a slowed-down and manipulated sample of the tagelharpa. It gives the whole song an air of sublimity, and it's the only time this type of effect is heard on the album. Thus, it gains even more gravity.
There are some brilliant arrangements here too! Check out “Unhidden”, whose opening is full of tension and foreboding. Then, at 02:18, it erupts into something that could pass for a horror movie soundtrack, with a thumping bottom end and surges of unsettling voices.
In true rock/pop fashion, they carry this for eight measures and then shift gears again. At 02:53 the layers of tagelharpa suddenly drop out, leaving only several types of percussion, punctuated by sharp inhalations. Again: electrifying.
There’s not necessarily any certain philosophy behind A Tergo Lupi’s music. It’s tempting to try to assign some esoteric designation to them, but in most ways they’re more (lowercase) pagan than (uppercase) Pagan. They’re explicitly non-religious. Whatever spiritual feelings they may have, they’re not directly reflected in their music. Rather, a primary underlying current that motivates them is inner turmoil and unsettled emotional feelings and experiences.
Accordingly, this music is turbulent and dense. Their term for it is Dark Folk, which effectively captures the way in which the band members take age-old, handmade instruments and use them to express and transmute their challenging, unpleasant emotions of today. There’s a certain subtle alchemy at play here, I think. Without pretending to fully grasp it, I’d say that the primary medium they use for this transformation is the plants, animals, and other surroundings of their homeland, which they describe as the gray and foggy land of northern Italy.
For a taste of this, check out the lyrics to one of my favorites, "Hear Me":
“Solstice firefly (Ask your favor),
Dying flowers (Ask your favor),
Climbing ivy (Ask your favor),
Devious ergot (Ask your favor)...”
Not only are the verses granted a delicious flavor by the galloping rhythm and the singsong way that every other phrase is delivered in the ultra low baritone, but the lyrics are clearly written by someone with a profound, intimate relationship with nature. This is far from the last time that I'll bring up artists who center their music solidly on the Earth.
Indeed, this is one of those few central themes that define modern Paganism. Musicians who look to Nature for direct inspiration will absolutely be a recurring theme here. It's another embodiment of the same philosophy that ties together Green Lung and Heilung: a reverence for one's home, and an honoring of those who came before and made this life possible for us.
By that, I'm not referring to nostalgia. It's not about romanticizing the place where one lives or where one grew up. Instead, it's more about honoring the unique circumstances that go into forming each individual life - each and every situation and struggle, along with every love affair that has gone into creating the lives we’re all living.
The idea isn’t limited to human life. Instead, this sense of reverence is recognition of the act of creation being lived out by all beings – humans, plants, other animals, insects, even down to the microbial level of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. In fact, the concept is often extended to include much that isn’t typically considered alive, beginning with minerals, soil, water, and other natural manifestations.
Broadly speaking, it’s creativity as expressed by the whole of our reality.
To bring this back into focus, I’ll suggest that pagans have a built-in affinity for creativity and the creative arts. Pagans tend to celebrate the creative processes of Nature, and they do it in a multitude of different ways. On the other hand, Abrahamic religions take creation out of the toolbox for believers.
According to Abrahamic thought, creation is handled exclusively by The Creator. It’s either already completed and done, or it’s something we mere humans shouldn’t concern ourselves with. I think most Abrahamists get whiffs of heresy and apostasy from creative ventures, and that’s particularly true when the creative venture is unconventional or challenging.
Of course, many of them do genuinely love music and other arts – I’m trying to be even-handed and not overstate my case here. At the same time, I think it’s fair to say that most believers are at least a little bit suspicious of ‘artistic types.’
Pagans, on the other hand, tend to think of creativity as an activity bordering on Divine. Given that, it’s really not a surprise that pagans are to thank for the majority of music (and other arts) that enrich our lives.
======================
A Tergo Lupi is:
Fabio Del Carro: main vocals and choirs, drums and percussion, and other.
Camilla Margherita Ferrari: tagelharpa, main vocals and choirs, percussion, and other.
======================
Selected A Tergo Lupi discography:
HOWL, 2025 self-released
HIDE, 2022 self-released
VESPER, 2021 digital release
======================
Much more about A Tergo Lupi can be found at their website.
======================
The Hidden Genre is a story that will unfold gradually. But you’re invited to sample the music anytime at the youtube playlist I put together to accompany this column. There are over 100 different Pagan music artists spanning neofolk, pop, rock, soul, classical and more!
======================
I’ll be back in about four weeks - just after the new moon - with another entry of something that’s similar, yet MUCH DIFFERENT. In the meantime, you can get caught up here: