Northern Rivers by Farewelleon

I started writing this album in December 2023. At that time, I was living in a small village in the north of Ukraine. It was the beginning of winter, and every morning I would wake up, walk to the window overlooking the river, and admire the beautiful snowy landscape.
And even though everything around me was breathtakingly beautiful, inside I felt incredibly heavy and lost.

One morning, I got up quite early and went for a walk to the river. It was freezing cold, and the snow was falling in thick flakes, so dense that I couldn't see more than a meter ahead.
Standing by the water, I suddenly realized that despite the storm and cold, I felt unexpectedly calm surrounded by the northern elements.
That’s when the idea was born — to create a small album of soothing music, a story intertwined with the northern rivers.

As you already know, this entire mini-album is dedicated to my brother, Viktor.
Why? Because my brother has always been the very first person to hear my music. It has always been this way, no matter what I created — whether I played keyboards in a black metal band, sang alternative metal songs, performed pop concerts, or played folk tunes on the violin.
I always knew I could ask for his opinion and receive honest support.
Even when it felt like I was about to stray from my musical path, my brother continued to believe in me.
And after every conversation with him, even the rare ones, I would find peace inside myself again.

Now a little about the songs on the album.
Each track carries its own idea.
Honestly, at first I thought the ideas would flow one into another, but as I kept creating, I found more and more new images — and they started contrasting with each other rather than forming a single storyline.

Silver Water
Silver Water is a saga track, inspired by a fantasy legend.
It tells the story of a hidden treasure deep within a mountain. Many brave young men and women went on a quest to find it, but none ever returned.
Nobody knew what had happened to them.
The secret was that the path to the mountain led across a river with silver water. Anyone who touched or drank from the river would fall into an eternal sleep, their bodies forever hidden in its shimmering depths.

Echo from Tanaelva
Tanaelva is a real river in Norway.
One day, I stumbled upon an amateur video of it on YouTube, and its atmosphere captivated me so much that I decided to use its name in my music.
At first, the working title was simply Tanaelva, but later it grew into Echo from Tanaelva.
I wrote this track right before leaving Ukraine, and inside me, many voices and emotions were clashing — pain, despair, but also a strange calmness and faith that I would survive everything.
For me, Echo from Tanaelva was a deep and complex emotional experience.
That’s why its voices sound so different, sometimes even chaotic.
I wasn’t aiming for “beautiful singing” — I wanted honesty.
The voices move out of tune at times, aggressive, torn apart — like an exposed nerve amid a vast cold space.

Later, a second version of this song was born — a calmer instrumental background.
I often use it for meditation and realize that now, my mind feels at peace. The new echoes of Tanaelva sound gentle and reassuring.

The Nokk
Another fantasy saga.
While studying Scandinavian mythology, I found a legend about the water spirit Nokk (or Nykk) — a mysterious being who lured people into the water by playing the violin.
I was fascinated by this idea and decided to create a song telling Nokk's story.
At first, I only wrote a catchy violin motif, planning to keep the entire album instrumental.
But soon, I felt that Nokk needed a voice — and that’s when I decided to create a full song.
It took me a while to find the right vocal melodies.
At times, I even thought I wouldn’t finish it at all.
But one day, I showed the song to a musician I’m collaborating with — and their feedback gave me enough strength and inspiration to complete it.

And today, I’m happy to share this small album with you.
Behind each track lies a story, a long and sometimes dangerous journey.
I wrote fragments of this album in many different places: in a northern village, in my hometown, singing melodies on a bus at the Slovak border, recording violin parts in a small apartment in Spain...
In one of the vocal tracks of Echo from Tanaelva, you can even hear the soft voice of my cat, who always loves to join my recording sessions.

I poured both the good and the painful into this music.
And if this album becomes something special for you, then I know I have written it for a reason.

After the release of Silver Water, a long time passed — this journey stretched for more than a year.
But one day, I received a message:
"It’s been 9 months, and I still listen to this track."
It moved me so deeply that I cried.

Thank you for staying with me and listening.
With sincerity,
Farewelleon

Jane "Farewelleon" - musician, composer, singer and sound-engineer from Ukraine (Zaporizhzhia). She create a deep emotional folk music with celtic and nordic elements. The main instrument of her tracks - is violin which helps to create dramatic tune that tells a story. A beautiful cold Jane’s voice lead us through ancient times and helps to find new path.

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