KJEMPENE PÅ DOVREFJELL

Folque's second album is the logical follow-up to their debut but it seems that this would be a concept album. I use the word "seems" because I do not speak or read Norwegian, therefore I am unable to grasp much except judge on the musical qualities of such an album.

And that music is actually still quite folk asa in pure folk with rock beats at times, and the longer tracks hold enough interplay to be at least entertaining to most progheads, but I did not find this album very progressive (at least compared to Comus , Algarnas Tradgard , Spirogyra). This seven piece combo seems to take the early Steeleye Span attitude (mainly traditional folk than give it a rock beat) but sometimes reaching out to Fairport Convention (circa Liege and Lief era) and also a bit of mostly-Scottish Incredible String Band.

As interesting the comparison I just made above , most proghead should approach Folque with much caution because this group is rather borderline for the scope of the ProgArchives. Howeber , should you want to investigate this , You might want to start with this album or its follow-up Vardoger.

Den Gode Grønne Skogen is one of the best songs comming from Norway in all time. It have a huge builde up, and when the bass joins in it just rocks crazy.

If you dont know Norwegian, the song is about a virgin who bets with her boyfriend 10 against 100 that she will visit him and come back still as a virgin. She gets to his place when he is sleeping out his alkohol from the day before, and she takes one of her golden rings and binds it to his hair so he would know she have been there. He gets mad and calls for his weapons and horse and tell that if he find her, the birds could stop their thirst with here blod! Quite a story!

The other songs and texts are equally fun.

I highly recomend it! Good musicians.

This band was riding high on the Norwegian folk rock wave back in the 1970s. One of the reasons is this album which is regarded as a classic from that scene.

Prog wise, only Den gode grønne skogen have a structure which can be attributed to the prog rock scene. The music is rooted in the Norwegian folk music scene with the traditional singing (kveding) and the harding fiddle. Folque has then added some country & western from USA to give the music a contemporary feeling (well, in the 1970s). There are some bluegrass and straight country here. Banjo, bass and drums. Welcome to Nashville, Tennessee. The "rock" bit in folk rock is not present.

The quality is dubious. Mainly because I am not a fan of folk music from my own country. There is no prog rock here too, with the small exception of the song mentioned. The songs are decent, but nothing more. Den gode grønne skogen is the only good song here and that's all I get out of this.

2 stars