Earlier this spring, our podcast host Aimee White (@aimeefw) travelled to Stockholm to meet Susanne Rosenburg, a professor at the Royal College of Music, and find out all about this unusual form of singing. It’s an ancient Swedish tradition that started during the Middle Ages as a way for farmers – at the time, usually lone women – to herd cattle and protect them from wolves using haunting folk-style singing calls. The lyrics of the calls tended to reflect the landscape and local animals, and the practice is still kept alive today by a small community of folk singers.
In this episode, we find out exactly what kulning is, the social impact that it has had on the country and how what started as a tradition in the Middle Ages has woven itself into modern music and life today. Visitors can even attend ‘cow-calling’ events, giving a look at a cultural heritage vastly different from their own. It’s hard to describe the sound kulning produces – it’s something like an eerie type of yodelling – you can get a taste by listening to the podcast.
By preserving subcultures like kulning, we gain a real insight into how traditions are formed and how they develop over time. We discover so much about a particular place’s history, and from that, what is important to its people and why.
We hope you enjoy this episode – don’t forget to let us know what you think. Rate us on Apple Podcasts and get in touch on Twitter using #roughguidespod!
Subscribe to The Rough Guide to Everywhere now (iTunes; Soundcloud; Spotify).
In the next episode, which comes out on 29th July, we’ll be chatting with extreme adventurer Ash Bhardwaj about his travels along the European-Russian border, for a project he is calling the ‘New Iron Curtain’.
