Although Norway may be betterknown for its metal exports in the musical underground, Norway (as well as therest of Scandinavia) have been the defacto torch bearers of the vintageprogressive rock sound and spirit. Although progressive rock now has rootsacross the world, it is here where the highest concentration and density of ‘vintage’progressive artists seem to reside, conjuring the spirit of the bygone 1970’swith the fuel of mellotrons, flutes, and psychedelic effects.  Tusmørke and their recent debut “UnderjordiskTusmørke” is an addition to this proud legacy of Scandinavian progressive rock,and the album’s been receiving some great acclaim from press and media lately,myself included! Their debut is highly recommended; a twisting, atmosphericmelting pit of everything vintage and 70’s. Check them out!

Hello! How is the weather inNorway this time of year? J

It’sreally varied, we’ve had winter come and go twice so far, with snow and frost,then a sudden thaw, new snow and then mild again. It’s a bit confusing for thewildlife, plenty of blackbirds deciding not to migrate this year. It’s also abit of pain for us, since we can’t wait to get our skis out to go trekking inthe mighty woods of Nordmarka and Østmarka. Traditionally, snow before winter solstice is not a dead certainty,loads of getting your hopes up only to see the snow turn to sludge the dayafter it has fallen. The days are short, the nights are cold, Orion is high inthe sky and pretty soon there’ll be twilight around the clock, more or less.

For us non-Norwegian speakers,what does your name mean? Why did you choose to adopt Tusmørke as a band name?

Tusmørketranslates as twilight, basically, but is most commonly used about the timewhen the sun is setting, i.e. dusk. We call dusk “skumring” and dawn “demring”,as well, and “tusmørke” may apply to both. We chose to adopt it as our bandname since it contains the word for darkness, “mørke”, as well as “tus” or“tuss” (modern spelling), meaning elf, goblin or troll, so it denotes themurky, shadowy hour of uncivilised, supernatural, unbaptized creatures, likeus. Also, when we started out in 1994, black metal and church burnings and catsacrifices were ubiquitous in the media and gradually became a local pastime inour small town of Skien, Telemark, so we thought of it as a kind of play withthe imagery of evil that was quickly becoming a cliché among young certainyoung people in Norway at the time. We are certainly misanthropic, hateful andgrumpy, but not evil in the sense that we yearn to pervert God’s creation oranything like that. Not on a daily basis, anyways. Twilight is a dubious sortof half-light, it can be perceived as darkness or as light, just like our musicis an amalgamation of several styles where people tend to perceive what theyexpect to find. Metal-heads see us as a metal band, prog-heads think we’reprog, while we’ve always viewed ourselves as a psychedelic folk band, first andforemost.

What’s the story behind theforming of Tusmørke? I would guess you have met each other through theNorwegian prog rock scene?

Yeah,we did. It’s a long story. Tusmørke was formed in 1994 in Skien, a small towntwo hours south of Oslo. I played the guitar in a psychedelic rock band calledCaptain Cumulonimbus and his Wondrous Cloudship, with Krizla playing various flutesand doing the vocals while Håkon Andersen played drums. It also featured Rune Seipon bass and vocals and Gunhild Lurås on cello. After a disastrous stint of gigsat local youth clubs, suffering abuse at the hands of local 12 year olds inexchange for a minuscule amount of much-needed cash, the cellist and bassistabandoned us before the final gig, leaving us as a trio. We jammed all night infront of a disinterested bunch of chavs in the sports hall of a school atKlyve, an unprivileged part of Grenland, itself a notoriously unprivileged partof south-eastern Norway. It is close to our then-home town of Skien, a placewith all the problems of a big city but none of the opportunities. The onlyfamous person to come out of Skien was Henrik Ibsen. He grew up there, moved toGrimstad when he was 15 and never came back, much like us, only we were 18 whenwe finally left. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We played the “concert” anddecided that it couldn’t get much worse and since we didn’t really need theother two, we formed the trio of Tusmørke and soldiered on. The idea was thatwe should be an acoustic corner trio after the fashion of troubadours andgallery minstrels seen in Monty Python movies and the Black Adder series. Weplayed several concerts and did a memorable Advent tour of local shoppingmalls, supported by the council. Angry news agents-ladies told us to take ourAfrican bongo nonsense elsewhere. Our former band mate Rune, now turnedjuggler, asked one particularly angry kiosk attendee whether she was feeling alot of pain inside. She told us to piss off. We did.

Tusmørkethe mediaevalesque trio developed into an electric outfit with the joining ofAndreas Wettergren Strømman Prestmo in ‘96, who was really a guitarist butdecided to play the bass for this project. He also played with Fangorn whichbecame Father Robin and is currently singing and playing guitar in Wobbler. Istarted playing the electric guitar and the bongos were replaced by a drum kit.Krizla continued playing recorder and penny-whistles for a while, though,before finally investing in a proper flute. Things were falling into place. Notbeing completely out of tune and actually being able to hear the guitar meant anew direction for us.

ElektriskTusmørke became Les Fleurs du Mal when we all moved to Bærum outside of Oslo in1997 and formed a commune there. We rehearsed every day for a long time in ayouth club at Rykkin, a notoriously underprivileged area of ridiculouslyaffluent Bærum, Akershus. Andreas worked as an activator/warden in this youthclub, so we could rehearse from early morning until 1 PM when the kids wouldstart coming in. We imported an organ player from Jæren called Trond Egil Aasenand watched in awe as he hauled a Hammond B-3, Leslie, Clavinet and MiniMooginto Rykkin Fritidsklubb. Things were looking good. Then Håkon lost interest in(un)popular music and was replaced by Henrik Harmer, the drummer of FatherRobin. He did an excellent job filling in for Håkon and we did a concert withWhite Willow in Asker and a couple of gigs in Skien and Porsgrunn beforerecording a 17 minute demo called “Ode on Dawn”. We had an idea that we wouldbe able to do this on a full-time basis and went on a band tour to London tostrengthen bonds over this new commitment. It all turned pear shaped when itwas discovered that we didn’t all share the same definition of the phrasefull-time. The band split up on the bus on the way back from the airport,Andreas and Henrik continued with Father Robin and me and Krizla went back ouruniversity studies. Who knows what we could have accomplished had we only keptpushing forward. Father Robin has yet to release any of their material but arestill recording from time to time, forever postponing the release date of theirnow four LP box set. It will be a marvel to behold when it is finally done. Inthe meantime, Andreas is with Wobbler and me and Krizla are doing Tusmørkeagain, after playing with outfits as varied and unique as Momrakattakk, theFew, Lydia Laska, the Mornings and the Mockery of Life.

As faras we were concerned, we pretty much made up our own scene back in theSkien-era. We were perhaps looking more for differences than similarities in thosedays, and felt alienated by the Oslo-crowd who embraced the neo-prog that wecouldn’t stand. Håkon Andersen, the original Tusmørke drummer, is the nephew ofJørn Andersen who ran the Colours label, responsible for issuing the firstalbums by Änlagård and Anekdoten.  Heshowed us what was what, warning against black metal and telling us that musiccan’t be based entirely on hatred (it can) and told us why Flash was reallysuperior to Yes (it isn’t). Still, we believed everything he told us andlistened to loads of King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Høst, Yes, Gentle Giant, BevisFrond, Ethereal Counterbalance, Omnia Opera, Genesis, Univers Zero, Yezda Urfa,Black Sabbath, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Cream and Black Widow. As far as aNorwegian prog secene went, we had our fanzine, Old Man Willow, and our bookcafé, Lunarium, in Skien while in Oslo there was the godawful Prognetikmagazine and the excellent Tarkus fanzine. When we became aware of prog nightsin Oslo at a place called Månefisken, ten years later, the same people werestill active! That is where we met HlewagastiR and Lars Fredrik Frøislie ofWobbler, as well. While the earlier versions of Tusmørke were marked by beingfriends first and band mates second, the current lineup, which is the seventhincarnation of the band, is based first and foremost on musical merit, ropingin musicians to serve a particular purpose. The sixth incarnation was in 2009and featured Svenno on percussion and Reggie (also of Father Robin) onkeyboards. They were gradually replaced and finally Deadly Nightshade joined in2011 so that the seventh manifestation of Tusmørke could plague the earth.

Each of you are involved inother bands in the Norwegian progressive scene- Wobbler put out a record lastyear that I really loved! How do you balance your responsibilities between thedifferent bands? What makes Tusmørke different from these other bands?

Werehearse less often, for a start. Usually, we meet up once a week, and if wehave new material to work on, maybe we put in a day or two of extra work. Apartfrom this, we rehearse individually. HlewagastiR is a human dynamo, able to flyin straight from a gig with Wobbler in Germany, go to work at Teknisk Museum,meet at rehearsal with Tusmørke the same night and play a concert the followingday. His energy is extraordinary. We are all friends with the Wobbler lot andeven share the same rehearsal space. There is a strong feeling of mutualsupport. What separates Tusmørke from other projects like Wobbler is that weare willing to go on stage and present new material that’s barely rehearsed andjust rely on improvisation to save the day. Inspiration, spur of the moment andsheer intensity are usually our saving graces. (I nearly wrote insanity there,but I didn’t.  Oh, wait, I did.)

“Underjordisk Tusmørke” is thename of your new album, and a great album it is! I think it really manages tocapture the vintage warmth of the classic progressive rock very well. What isthe story behind this album? What went into making it a reality?

MeetingHlawagastiR and Lars Fredrik Frøislie through Andreas Strømman WettergrenPrestmo and hanging out at Månefisken discussing the inflated price of thereissue of Museo Rosenbach’s Zarathustra made the recording possible, really.Tusmørke had reformed in 2009 as a trio with me on bass and vocals, my twinbrother Krizla on flute and vocals and Svenno on percussion. Around this time,I had just quit wasting time as the bassist in punk band Lydia Laska andstarted rehearsing my own compositions as The Mockery of Life with an assortedband of local Oslo freaks, including songs composed to win over my wife-to-beNadia. I recorded a cassette of songs telling her of my feelings for her, whicheventually resulted in a wedding on the Nile in Cairo with Andreas as my bestman in 2010. In 2009 it hit me that the natural thing to do after quittingLydia Laska would be to revive Tusmørke, which had  lain dormant for a decade, to rehearse songsof wonder and magic and enchantment. The inspiration for this came mainly from listeningto the early albums of Current 93, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV. Itinstilled a feeling that everything is allowed in music and that you don’t needto follow rules. I especially wanted to break the rule that you need a guitaristin the band. Soon the trio was bolstered by Reggie on keyboards. Svenno and Reggiequit after a string of concerts, to be replaced by HlawagastiR whom we had metat prog nights at Månefisken in Oslo, and Deadly Nightshade, a fellow spacecadet from jam sessions in the attic of Hersleb skole, a local school in thecentre of Oslo. We had rehearsed loads of material with Svenno and Reggie inthe living room of my flat in a derelict apartment house in Oslo, so when thetwo new members joined and we had rented a proper rehearsal space we chose themost suitable of these tracks for recording the debut album. We laid down thebasic tracks with Lars in the basement den of the farm of the Frøislie family andrecorded the rest in his apartment in Tøyen, Oslo.

The album artwork for this albumis pretty strange, is it meant to represent or convey anything in particular?

It’smeant to convey the eeriness of the underworld of the subterraneans, a fixtureof Norwegian folklore. The art was made by Camilla Kloster a long time ago; herart was brought to our attention by Sverre of Fresh Tea, who issued our firstsingle. We chose the artwork because it features the kind of beings you mightencounter in dreams of elves and also the passage to the beyond, a gatewaybetween light and darkness, an aperture of pleasure and ecstasy and yet theentrance to the mundane world.

The lyrics on the album fit themusic very well- “The Quintessence of Elements” for example deals with conceptsof alchemy. What inspired these lyrics? Are there any topics of interest youmight recommend myself and other proggers looking into?

Withregards to “the Quintessence of Elements”, I’ll let by brother Krizla answerfor himself:

“The lyrics are inspired by the concept of the philosophers'stone, in
traditional alchemy usually presented as a substance or artefact that
enables the magus to transmute base metals into gold. The stone of the
philosophers is also used to discover the fifth essence in nature, the
higher reality beyond the mundane existence constituted by the four
elements of fire, earth, water, and air. The stone, of course, is
really a mystical metaphor for a certain knowledge or insight through
which transformations in the world can be brought about. It may also
stand as a metaphor for the attainment of knowledge about the true
meaning of the world and existence. However, most occult writers tend
to emphasise the material aspects of the quintessence of elements:
there is no end to recipes and methods described to attain this
so-called stone, typically including the boiling of mercury under the
full moon whilst chewing on a toad. Rest assured, this is a smoke
screen for non-initiates, comparable to the methods by which financial
experts turn nature and work into numerical gold through the holy
rites of the stock market. The result will always be false, and
potentially very harmful to the would-be initiate! Now, the lyrics of
The Quintessence of Elements are rather personal, and are informed by
the results of certain mystic and unholy rituals that do reveal the
truth concerning the philosophers' stone and the attainment of the
fifth essence of the four elements. This knowledge is hidden somewhere
on the album Underjordisk Tusmørke and can be found by those who seek!
For those proggers interested in the topic of alchemy, Aleister
Crowley and his Magick in Theory and Practice is a good place to
start, together with Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic. However,
these schools of ritual magick are based in masonic and theistic
traditions that I don't really care for. I'm more interested in
rituals based in learning sorcery directly, through experiences in the
magick of nature and through musical improvisation. The fifth essence
that unites the four elements is very close, there is no need for high
priests or self-professed revelators.”

As formyself I am interested in reading about Egyptian and Ancient Norse mythology aswell as studying various texts concerning the years of migration in Europearound 300-700 AD. The International Bronze age is a favourite topic, as wellas books on Nordic petroglyphs. There are some really nice petroglyphs from theNordic Bronze Age close to where my identical twin brother and I grew up; apicture of the petroglyphs is featured on the tray of the CD version ofUnderjordisk Tusmørke.  I enjoy reading Goethe’sFaust and Milton’s Paradise Lost, the poetry of Coleridge, Rimbaud, Keats andBaudelaire, the plays of Shakespeare and Ibsen,  and of course the Bible and the Quran. Forspiritual enlightenment I thoroughly recommend contemplating the texts of Plotin.As for inspiration, no amount of reading can match a nice stroll in thecountryside, bird watching and ruin spotting.

On my promo of “UnderjordiskTusmørke”, there are three ‘bonus’ tracks, with “Ode on Dawn” treading intofull-fledged prog epic territory. What kept these songs off of the ‘real’album; why were they kept as bonuses?

Thefirst two bonus tracks were issued as a 7” vinyl single in 200 copies by FreshTea in 2011, the final track is the only proper recording ever made by Tusmørke’spredecessor Les Fleurs du Mal, in 1997. We wanted the CD to be like the crammedreissues of the 90s were every available minute was filled with music. This isa result of our sense of humour, which arguably is perverse.

I would argue that there are twomajor schools of progressive rock at this point- one that tries to merge theprogressive spirit with contemporary rock, and the other that stays true to thevintage sound. Tusmørke are most certainly adherents to the latter style. Doyou think this ‘vintage’ sound of progressive rock is as relevant today as itwas in the 1970’s?

We donot care much for the modern age. We neither strive for commercial success nor formaking our music palatable to the jaded masses. Relevance is certainly relativeto the listener; to some we are utterly pointless, to others we are spot on.

What’s the scene like locally inNorway for progressive rock? Undoubtedly, Scandinavia has taken on a greatsignificance in the revival of progressive rock…

Thereis no scene as such, just a hell of lot of lone wolves, ha ha! I think a lot ofmusicians in Oslo are open minded, there is a sense of community in a wayregardless of genre, there is a lot going on, people hang out in bars, meet atconcerts and so on. We are not concerned with limiting ourselves to being aprogressive rock band, labels like “prog” and “retro” are more damaging thananything, I find, since they tend to exclude rather than invite would-belisteners; we are a psychedelic folk band intent on blowing minds and movingfeet. We are not about reviving anything, but rather express our romanticyearning in a musical form that makes your imagination and body move. Thegroove is in the Heart of Darkness and Tusmørke draws breath in time with itspulse, beating out the rhythm to stirr the air inside your ear and make youdance.

What advice would you give toyoung and uninitiated progressive musicians, looking to start a band or gettheir music heard in today’s world?

Practicea lot and make good songs, grow old but don’t grow up.

Favourite beers?

Various Belgian Trappist beers, Norwegian Haandbryggeriet’sDark Force and Dobbel Dose, Guiness and Newcastle Brown Ale.

Favourite cheeseburgers?

Anythingwith bacon and  Blue Castello.

What have you been listening tolately?

SkogenBrinner, The Folklords, Hexvessel, Arktau Eos, Alice Coltrane, Neu!, Fairuz, Deathin June and while writing this interview, the mighty Omar Khorshid, Egyptianking of electric guitar.

Are there possible tours in thefuture for Tusmørke? Come to Vancouver- we haven’t had vintage prog rock aroundthese parts in quite a while!

We’dlove to go to Vancouver, book us and we’ll come!

Any last words for theprogressive community at large?

Destroythat which destroys you.

Cheers, and Slainte from Canada!Conor Fynes

Cheersand skål from Norway! Benediktator