Folk music has a pretty difficult time of it in the modern music scene. Despite being the foundation for almost all popular music genres, it is often considered cliche and archaic when held up against contemporary music, even though elements of the genre resonate throughout popular music. Whether it’s acoustic instrumentation or song structures which are the very backbone of popular music itself,  the influence and fundamental importance of Folk music is downplayed or outright neglected.

Perhaps one of the most attractive elements of traditional Folk music is the ability to cast the listener back to simpler times: the unpolished, acoustic and raw elements create a picture in the listener’s mind of centuries-old tribes creating music in wild far-flung lands. This is exactly where Fedrespor’s Fra en Vugge i Fjellet (Nordvis Produktion) takes us. Translated from Norwegian, “from a cradle in the mountains” is a perfect summary of what this album represents.

Rather than a collection of individual songs, the record is a collection of soundscapes which will bathe the listener is ancient nostalgia. Using a variety of traditional Norwegian instruments, subtle modern synthesisers, choral passages, and natural recordings, the record takes us to the side of an ancient mountain hundreds of years ago and lets us wander that mountain range alone in a dreamlike state.

Approaching the record knowing that this isn’t your typical Folk record is vital to fully enjoy it for what it is: this is a meditative escapist record which is more of an immerse experience than anything structurally defined. The record can, therefore, be interpreted as both a foreground and watercolor record. There are enough elements in it to fully demand the listener’s attention, but it can also be relaxing and meditative background music whilst preoccupied with other tasks letting you decide what kind of record you want it to be and serving both purposes efficiently.

Although the album has to follow a very strict textural application of music based upon its intent and style, it’s unique with regards to the use of traditional elements. Meditative music tends to be digitally focused with synthesisers providing most of the sonic palette. Fra en Vugge i Fjellet provides atmosphere organically through the use of acoustic instrumentation and in-the-field recordings as well as the staple digital counterpart, able to speak in two distinct voices and allows itself to be listened to again and again with a new experience and landscape created each time.

6 / 10

CALUM FARQUHAR