Album Review: "Fort Bak Lyset" by Tusmörke

Fort Bak Lyset

It's not really evidenced on these pages, but personally, I love Broadway Musicals.

Naturally my favorite one is Spamalot which is lovingly stolen from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. Three times I've seen that play.

There are few things in this world that strike me like the flutes of Robin's wandering minstrels.

It's something that's very conspicuously insane. The music they play is just as important as the crazy words they spew about their brave master.

Sadly, their musical bit is very short. In the play it is fleshed out a bit more, but I still think back to the movie, where the show was sourced, when I hear anything with a similar timbre. If only it could be used in some psychedelic Norwegian prog-metal....

Tusmörke

Most people would probably hear Jethro Tull as our new friends from Norway, Tusmörke, play some flute.

Not me.

Look up to see where my mind was led. For more though, it seems as though this music is minstrel metal.

If it's metal at all honestly.

The vocals are trance inducing and match the flute so seamlessly. It's easy to picture any of a hundred different supernatural creatures playing the flute.

What sets Tusmörke apart from their progressive counterparts is the lack of extended solos. Aside from the melodies of the flute, there are no sections of self-indulgence. The band, and I'm not sure what instrumentation we have here, play extended jam sessions.

The chorus of instruments meld seamlessly into a single voice proclaiming something, but as it's in Norwegian, who knows for sure?

Seeing the forest through the trees is very easy listening to Fort Bak Lyset.

Release: 4/1/16
Genre: Dark Psychedelic Folk Prog
Label: Svart Records
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