Tusmörke - 2025 - En Pakt Med Naturen

(48:19; Karisma Records)

‘A Pact With Nature’ was recorded live at Oslo’s biggest independent record store Big Dipper, as part of Tusmørke’s 25th anniversary celebration last October. Somewhat incredibly this is their first ever live release, even though they have released eleven studio albums (and also is the first I have heard so am not sure how similar this is to their normal output). The line-up of Benediktator (bass, vocals), Krizla (flute, vocals), Herjekongen (keyboards) and Kusken (drums) were expanded for this event by guests Dauinghorn (guitars) and Åsa Ree (violin, backing vocals), and given the importance of those instruments to the overall sound one can see the need for them to be involved. I love the following comment from Benediktator, “Is this Folk Horror? Silly question, perhaps, but we need you to mutter certain phrases while listening: Bucolic, acoustic, ancient, uncanny; acid, pagan, peasant, occult; wildness, wilderness, wilderness, Wicker Man…We ask you to close your eyes and picture yourself in a windowless low dwelling, open to the sky through a hole in the roof. Acrid smoke curls upward and occasional sparks fly from the smouldering fire. Music wafts through the gloom in this serene scene of timeless primitivism. There is no electricity. There are no synthesizers. I won’t even mention digital things, because they don’t exist. There is only Folk Horror and you are in League with Nature.”

I have been lucky enough to see many folk bands over the years, and there are times when they are sweet and innocent, but they can often be found singing murderous tales of times when it was not excellent a pleasant life, and there is no doubt where Tusmørke belong. This is acoustic music which has a sense of traditional saga telling, where the drums seem much more like bodhrans and older styles, the violin is a plaintive fiddle, the flute a shining ray of sunlight attempting to cast aside the gloom, while the vocals are plaintive and emotive. Some of the songs are in English, others Norwegian, and the band can be cheerful when they wish to be, but even when the music is upbeat the words may not be quite the same. Take “Age of Iron Man” for example which could almost be a reel, but commences with “Strangulation, In the Danish marsh, Hot blood running, The ritual is harsh”, so not exactly what one might imagination.

This is not pure folk, as there are both Canterbury and psychedelic in what they are doing, and the result is an album which is compelling and interesting. There is a harshness which is both real and inviting, yet one always knows there is a reality here which is much darker than one might like. 

Kev Rowland, September 2025

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/Tusmorke/
https://www.karismarecords.no/