Is this the sound of freedom?

MP3? See bottom at this page.

The first thing you might think of is the film “The Sound of Freedom” – a favorite among conspiracy theorists. But this has nothing to do with trafficking thrillers or Hollywood’s self-image. This is something much closer, something more Swedish, and more complex.

The track and its origins

This Friday marks the release of the track “Vägen till frihet” (“The Road to Freedom”), a track that plants an easter egg for anyone familiar with the so-called “freedom movement” in Sweden. The original title, based on the chant “Hajaka”, didn’t quite hold up as a standalone song title, so it eventually landed on “Vägen till frihet”, aligning with the Swedish lyrics.

To avoid copyright issues with the sampled audio, I had to rework the spoken-word elements that the track is built on, rather than simply creating a mashup of the original audio – something I experimented with back when I was more of a DJ trainee (as a mashup).

Influences from Rörelsen

The track gives a subtle nod to the orchestrators featured in SVT’s documentary series Rörelsen – Max Winter, Filip Sjöström, and a handful of spiritually inclined figures searching for identity during the pandemic. The song doesn’t directly reference the series, but traces of the storyline are woven into the lyrics – particularly the segment in episode 2 that resonated with me the most, largely thanks to its use of the rhythm. The core of the lyrics is the chant – the “Hajaka” – and how the group, through an imagined encounter with “the woman in the forest”, builds to that point.

She doesn’t call out, but she is heard. She doesn’t lead, but she walks ahead. She carries an energy that can’t be bought, sold, or contained.

Reflections from Kalle about the movement

I have to say, Kalle Ström approaches the whole subject with genuine humility and nuance in an interview that I found at Martin Stensö, which makes me appreciate both the series and the people portrayed in it even more. He’s clear about his intention – “this is my journey into it”, as he puts it.

Ström doesn’t deny the strange elements, but rather leans into them with curiosity: “It may seem strange or peculiar, but I thought it was quite fascinating. We perform rituals all the time – in different ways”. In response to criticism or skepticism about the participants’ mental states, he maintains an empathetic stance: “I try to remain open to the fact that people can be different”.

He also addresses the idea of bias in media: “Those who were part of the movement have described themselves as misrepresented and skewed by the media… but my impression is that now they feel the depiction has been fair”. And he knows what he’s made: “I think it’s a very strong story – and most of those involved think so too”.

The man who leads the men’s circle remains a mystery though – and this is one of the reasons why I chose to resample the original spoken text and render it more anonymous – and to avoid any copyright issues.

Context: The documentary series

The documentary series Rörelsen (“The Movement”), broadcast by SVT, was created by ethnologist Kalle Ström. Over the course of two years, he followed the so-called Freedom Movement from the inside, with a particular focus on its more spiritual and alternative dimensions. One segment of the series shows a men’s gathering at “a lost place”, where eleven men sit around a fire and – through rituals, breathing exercises, and emotional release – attempt to “meet the woman from the forest”. This is where the track comes in. The rest of the series is not explicitly about this group of men.

The charismatic leader of the session – a man I refer to as “The Man with the Hat” due to his anonymity – encourages participants to envision a woman stepping out of the darkness, walking toward them, and filling them with immense, radiant energy. The scene culminates in rhythmic clapping, chanting, and the now-iconic call: “Hajaka-hajaka-hey’o, hey’o!” – a sequence that left a lasting impression in the series and has now been reinterpreted musically in this track, but entirely resampled and processed through AI (Suno).

The song extracts this image from the documentary – the woman, the energy, the rhythm – and gives it a new context. It’s not reduced to roleplay or spiritual technique. Here, she becomes power. Rhythm. A cry.

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