Viking (Francesca Ortolani)

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Viking's Damnation

Viking, (born Francesca Ortolani on 25/06/1982), is an Italian nationalist/heathen singer/songwriter/producer/engineer, and founder of the label AshTree Records.

She's known for her recorder, and is an electronic engineering student. She's is a busker in the London Underground. She has dedicated her CD Gloucester Road - 13 Songs for the Damned to London's underground transit system, and she has officially donated the CD to London's Transport Museum.

Battersea Power Station photographed by Viking

[edit] Career

Ortolani started writing music for helself when she was 15, and she has written songs for several singers. After some demos (more or less official), and some attempts at recording albums at home, she produced the provocative album Welcome to Scandinavia in 2000, telling the story of a hypothetical Viking who loses his roots. In 2002, she founded her own label, AshTree Records, and she released the album Askungen, which included the controversial song "Don't go round with the Jews"; a song which became on one side an anthem among anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi groups and on the other side among the young Jewish community of Rome, and other parts of Italy.^{[citation needed]} The song is allegedly a true story, and the songwriter says there has been too much speculation about it.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003 a 20-year-old Viking released the full album L'eco della Battaglia, which is in Italianand includes military marches arranged like folk ballads. Bad reviews said her voice was too soft and too "female" to sing songs like these.^{[citation needed]} The album became a success worldwide, and Viking doesn't like the idea that many Italians remember her for this album instead of her original compositions.^{[citation needed]} Since then, Viking has written songs for other musicians and has released some special tracks on compilations. In 2005, she released the album Secret Lab.

Her Gloucester Road - 13 Songs for the Damned CD includes the songs Kissed by the Sun, London Trains, Until they take my life away, Towards the Light, Pro Aeterna Paganitate. The album also features a pair of Jethro Tull covers. Viking donated this CD to London's Transport Museum. The album was dedicated to the District Line of London, and the main concept was Ideals are like trains, when they are too old they got to be upgraded. Let my thoughts live revolutionary days, London Trains. The album opposes mental constraints and many political figures. It's an invitation to believe in personal ideals, avoiding pre-concepts and political behaviours.

In 2006, Viking was working on the album The Power Station, in which support for technological progress meets aeroplanes, electricity, love, nationalism and sensuality. The album was scheduled to be released in winter. That year she started producing music videos. She also started Viking singing in German, and she worked with the Canadian band Geimhre. She also lost her job as video editor for an American filmmaker after her appereance in a British documentary.[1]