FØRT BAK LYSET

Third full album from Tusmørke and it's a great on. Their previous album Riset Bak Spielet featured some great material, but it got bogged down with "Black Swift" and "All is Lost" (in fact the CD bonus cuts were much better), songs that were a tad repetitive and going on too long, especially "Black Swift", easily my least favorite from these guys. I wondered if the band had some writer's block at the time, but I'm glad they seemed to have that problem solved, as their next album totally proves that. Ført Bak Lyset fixed whatever flaws on their predecessor, and make it their best since their debut Underjordisk Tusmørke. Here they sing all in their native Norwegian. Marxo Solinas aka Lars Fredrik Frøislie brings his analog gears, even the occasional Chamberlin and Mellotron. Also it took me this many years to realize drummer HlewagastiR was none other than Martin Nordrum Kneppen who I already know from Wobbler. Also I now know that flautist Krizla is Kristoffer Momrak, and Benediktator is his brother Benedikt Momrak, who plays bass, and both sing (the Momrak brothers are pretty much Tusmørke). There is less reminders of Jethro Tull this time around, but the flute is still present. I really got a kick off "Ekebergkongen" where the flute quotes Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King". I knew their music frequently got me thinking of Grieg, this time they actually quote Grieg. Helps that "Ekebergkong" translates something like "The King of Ekeberg" (Ekeberg is a neighborhood in Oslo, so obviously these guys aren't taking themselves too seriously). It seems the lyrics talk of changelings and trolls lurking about Ekeberg, which is an upscale neighborhood (perhaps the Tusmørke guys felt the yuppies that live there need to be scared by trolls and changelings). I guess if Henrik Ibsen came up with the idea of Mountain King lurking in Dovrefjell (in which Grieg set to music), the band thought of a King lurking about in Ekeberg, like an urban counterpart to the old Mountain King. The music still has that wonderful mystic fairytale vibe with a Nordic feel to it. Some other goodies I really enjoy here include "Et Djevelsk Mareritt", "Spurvehauken", and "Vinterblot". It's a bit strange to hear Martin Nordrum Kneppen incorporating disco-type hi-hats in "Vinterblot", but other than that it's still a wonderful piece of psych/prog/folk. "Spurvehauken" is a nice piano-dominated piece, while "De Reiser Fra Oss" has a bit of an ELP thing going on in the organ department. I still have trouble understanding the Canterbury and Krautrock acts these guys were frequently compared to, to me they're basically a psychedelic band that incorporates folk and prog elements, but comparing them to Can or Amon Duul II, that I don't understand. Maybe a bit of Caravan had they been Nordic (the vocals sound a tad like a Scandinavian Richard Sinclair). Jethro Tull and Black Widow I understand more clearly.

I also really get a kick off the cover, a toad eating pills, probably uppers or downers (now I think of it, probably quaaludes). The LP gatefold also depicts lizards and snakes also taking those pills in the gatefold and back cover (same probably applies to the CD as well), and a book by Andrew Tomas called Beyond the Time Barrier (1974), which depicts the real book with the real cover. Plus also a Bill Graham Jefferson Airplane poster. Another example of the band not taking themselves always serious.

I am so glad this music exists in 2016, and it's probably destined to me one of my favorites this year. And now in 2018 the album even sounds better than I remembered when I first heard it in '16! This is something I can highly recommend.