Dark Norwegian Folk Prog #1: Instilled with a deep love for Norwegian Folk from a young age not many know about, the fusion of these particular, wonderful sounds with heavy prog vibes is a prospect that had my mouth watering – or rather my ears dying to hear. Marekvist from Kristiansand nailed this heavenly marriage to perfection on their second album “Varde”. For those not familiar with Norwegian folk music, rest assured, it’s nothing like anything you will see on TV in Germany for example, what they like to call “Volksmusik”. It’s naturally proggy and with light melancholy vibes, and the closest thing to it a proghead might have heard before could be the intro to Opeth’s ‘Folklore’ (sic!). Even though that’s Swedish. So it’s similar, but different. With a quite smooth and groovy double drum/percussion attack feat. frequent Ihsahn collaborator Tobias Øymo Solbakk on one of the drumkits and an expressive vocal delivery from Live-Andrea Gjessen Rasch in her Norwegian mother-tongue, “Varde” ticks all the right boxes for me. From: https://theprogspace.com/album_releases/week-18-2023/#marekvist
