RISET BAK SPEILET

Riset bak speilet (= 'The Birch Behind the Looking Glass') is the second album by the Prog Folk group Tusmorke (= Twilight) from Oslo, Norway. Apart from Bydyra (2017) which, as music from a children's musical, gives a completely false picture of the band, I'm not very familiar with the other albums. By the way, interesting that their record company at this time was Svart Records from Finland.

The CD edition contains three bonuses, two of them pretty long, stretching the CD length to 71 minutes. The album contains lyrics both in Norwegian and in English, and the Norwegian lyrics are translated in the booklet. 'Offerpresten' (= 'The Sacrificial Priest') is an uptempo song full of tradition-honouring folk prog elements reminiscent of Jethro Tull's Songs from the Wood era. Flute and vintage keyboards sound very delicious, but I'm not so fond of trumpet and sax -- luckily this is their sole appearance on the album. The instrumentation is the fullest on this hectic opening track. The slower and more calm 'Gamle aker kirke' is about an old church and is confusingly sung in English. Nice, moody melodies and a beautiful retro soundscape featuring lots of flute and some Mellotron. This is exactly what a Prog Folk enthusiast likes to hear. 'Black Swift' has a bit bigger emphasis on the chorus with vocal harmonies reminding of the late 60's stuff of e.g. The Moody Blues and Omega.

Dark-toned 'All Is Lost' has heavy guitars and is actually the dullest composition to me, despite some little signature changes and nice flute work. The 15-minute title track (the second song with Norwegian lyrics) is the longest and the most dynamically progressive. At times I wish there were less vocals, but the instrumental sections are all the more effective.

The first one of the bonuses sounds very Medieval: I can imagine hooded monks accompanied by a small group of musicians who at the end wander into slightly experimental gloominess. The two pieces of roughly 10 minutes length rival the main album's highlights. So, even if you're a vinyl enthusiast, it's definitely wiser to have the CD in this case. This is among the best Prog Folk albums of this decade, with a full blooming of both sides of the term.