Unto Ashes

Unto Ashes is a darkwave-leaning musical ensemble formed in 1997 in New York by Michael Laird (also a collaborator of Black Tape For A Blue Girl), keyboardist Natalia Lincoln, and the “heavenly voice” of Ericah Hagle. Their “blood-lit music” seeks to explore the brightest and most terrible crevices interwoven in our lives, blending medieval dirges, apocalyptic folk, black metal, blues singing and German romantic sensibility.

Their main inspiration is the sonic universe of Dead Can Dance, though always under a fundamentally different mood than the metaphysical and spiritual one of the Anglo-Australian duo: the music of Unto Ashes is constantly and darkly nocturnal, funereal, apocalyptic. The instruments are often the same ones used by Dead Can Dance (and not exactly common ones, like the “yang t'chin”, the “saz”, the hurdy-gurdy, along with a host of medieval instruments and percussion), but their use is not aimed at weaving imaginative, spectacular journeys through time and space: where the Middle Ages of Dead Can Dance were magical, epic, mystical, those of Unto Ashes are instead populated by preachers and storytellers wandering through landscapes devastated by war and plague, declaiming prophecies of eternal damnation and litanies announcing the imminent arrival of the final judgment. The band uses an unusually wide range of ancient and modern musical instruments to achieve a unique sound: harmonium, hurdy-gurdy, Appalachian and hammered dulcimer, Persian and African percussion, cello, French horn, acoustic and electric guitars, piano and synthesizer, Indian tambura and rumbling drums. Their distinctive voices and vocal harmonies, showcased in hypnotic and powerful live performances, have contributed to their acclaim.

Unto Ashes have released twelve CDs for the Project label (all recorded and produced by Laird), the latest of which, “Orchids Grew Here“, came out in 2023.

The band currently consists of Laird himself, along with Ericah Hagle, Paul Ash and Bret Helm.