Kauan

History

Kauan got its start in February 2005 when Anton Belov, who had previously played in Helengard, founded the band. Their earliest music mixed together folk metal, black metal, and doom metal. Violinist Lyubov Mushnikova joined in September 2006. Guitarist Alexander Borovikh came on board before the first album, Lumikuuro, which came out on 4 August 2007 through BadMoodMan Music. Borovikh left before the second record, Tietäjän laulu, released by the same label on 30 November 2008; that album brought in ambient and post-rock sounds. By the time of the third album, Aava tuulen maa, released 18 November 2009 on Firebox Records and BadMoodMan Music, the band’s style had shifted into a sad blend of atmospheric neofolk and post-rock. In 2010, Belov and his wife, vocalist Alina “Witch_A” Belova (who had been in Inferno and Semargl), put out a full-length album with his other project Helengard on Firebox Records. The fourth album, Kuu.., arrived on 26 June 2011 via Avantgarde Music, leaning heavily into post-rock and ambient with some doom metal touches. Mushnikova left the band later that year.

Belov built a full lineup in 2013, adding Belova on keyboards, bassist Alex Vynogradoff (also in Vin De Mia Trix), viola player Anatoly Gavrylov, and drummer Anton Skrynnik (ex-Dimicandum). This group played on the fifth album, Pirut, released by Blood Music on 15 December 2013. That same year, the band self-released a digital compilation box set called Private Release, which was partly reissued in 2014 as Muistumia by Blood Music. The next studio album, Sorni Nai, was streamed on 15 October 2015 and officially released on 20 October. It is a concept album made of one continuous song split into seven tracks, telling the story of the mysterious 1959 Dyatlov Pass incident. The seventh album, Kaiho, came out on 22 September 2017, with lyrics written by Finnish folk singer Marja Mattlar. The eighth album, Ice Fleet, was released on 9 April 2021. Between 2021 and 2022, Kauan put out three live albums—Sorni Nai live, Pirut live, and Lumikuuro live—all recorded during a single performance in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2017. On 24 February 2023, they released ATM Revised, a reworked version of Aava tuulen maa that was fully remixed and remastered, swapping out the original sample-based drums and bass guitar for real instruments.