Nordisk Krim by Tusmorke

For the Nordisk Krim recordings, Tusmørke’s official lineup includes the five main musicians.

Benediktator (Benedikt Momrak) – Bass, lead vocals, production

Krizla (Kristoffer Momrak) – Flute, vocals

HlewagastiR (Tomas Linnes) – Drums

Haugebonden Gode Gullstein (Filip Zenon) – Keyboards, synthesizers

Åsa Ree – Violin, backing vocals

Compared to previous albums, the lineup has shown notable stability, with a few changes in stage names and new standout members.

The heart of the band, founding brothers Benediktator and Krizla, has stayed firmly at the helm, ensuring continuity of their signature folk-psychedelic sound. 

HlewagastiR (also known as Kusken) on drums and Haugebonden Gode Gullstein (sometimes credited as Herjekongen) on keyboards have confirmed their steady presence.

The new element and added value of this album is the permanent addition of Åsa Ree on violin.  Although she had already worked with the band as a guest in concerts, on Nordisk Krim her instrument was an integral part from the earliest arranging stages. Her violin parts became essential in creating the melancholic, ghostly atmospheres that define the suites dedicated to the bog mummies, such as “Moss Goddess”.

Nordisk Krim, which translates as “Nordic Crime”, originates in Tusmørke’s childhood and historical passion.  As early as 1994, the year they formed, the Momrak brothers dreamed of creating a concept album about bog mummies, those prehistoric bodies found in the peat bogs of Northern Europe.  As children, visits to the Moesgaard and Silkeborg museums had deeply struck them, fascinated by those black bodies with orange hair.

The title “Nordisk Krim” plays ironically with the Nordic Noir genre, Scandinavian crime fiction.  It alludes to the fact that, when the first bodies were discovered, people and authorities immediately thought of a recent murder.

According to Tusmørke, the real crime was not the ritual sacrifice of those men, but their modern exhumation.  Disturbing their sleep, they explain, was the true offense, since they were offerings to the gods.

The album is not a tale of horror violence, but a celebration of the “willing victims” of ancient rites.  Their bodies rest in the bog, but their souls fly free among the stars.

Benediktator, the bassist and singer, recorded and self-produced the entire album in his home studio. To capture the bog’s mystical, unsettling atmosphere, the band used various field recordings and even recorded bubble and gurgling sounds in their bathtub, renamed for the occasion “The Bubble Bath of Blood”.

The band itself has described the record as “Acid Folk” or “ritual Prog Folk”, a blend that fuses ’70s progressive rock with the dark moods of Northern European pagan folklore.

The sound is marked by a contrast between pastoral and dark elements. Krizla’s flute and Åsa Ree’s violin, acoustic instruments, evoke on one side wild nature, on the other ghostly melodies.

The band favors vintage instrumentation, rejecting modern productions. Haugebonden Gode Gullstein’s keyboards use classic sounds such as Mellotron, Hammond organ and analog miniMoog synthesizers, harking back to ’70s prog rock.

The rhythms are tribal and hypnotic, with mid-tempo, measured beats. Benediktator’s pulsing bass and HlewagastiR’s drums create repetitive, obsessive patterns that induce a trance state and mimic the pulse of an ancient ritual.

The vocal lines alternate solemn, almost religious choral chants with spoken and over-the-top parts, recalling the theatricality of late-’60s British psychedelia.

Nordisk Krim is a towering musical journey, punctuated by truly impressive moments.

“Ride the Whimbrel” opens with the sound of wind and the call of the whimbrel, a bog bird. The flute introduces a sunny folk melody that deceives, before the track turns into a dark prog gallop.

In the central section of “Moss Goddess”, which lasts almost 15 minutes, the music stops abruptly, giving way to Åsa Ree’s ghostly violin solo that evokes the bog’s loneliness, before the analog synthesizers unleash a very heavy instrumental section.

The epic finale of “Mysteries of Sacrifice”, a 17-minute suite, has all the instruments converging in a hypnotic, obsessive crescendo. The tribal rhythm speeds up to simulate the climax of the sacrificial ritual, then suddenly fades into silence.

Nordisk Krim, Tusmørke’s most ambitious, dense and coherent work, a triumph of contemporary prog-folk.  Despite its complexity, which makes it a demanding record, its atmosphere is its undisputed strength.

With over an hour and twenty minutes of music, it requires active listening.  The central part of the second disc, with its hypnotic, repetitive rhythms, may feel redundant to those who aren’t fans of extreme psychedelia.

The vocals, bizarre and deliberately over the top, have always been Tusmørke’s trademark. Anyone looking for clean or conventional singing may find the Momrak brothers’ vocal style hard to digest.

Nordisk Krim is a niche masterpiece—eccentric, dark, and full of typically Scandinavian macabre humor—but if you love the wildest ’70s progressive rock and stories of pagan folklore, this album is a precious gem to rediscover. Essential album.

My Version

Label: Karisma Records – KAR200LP
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Stereo, Magenta Translucent
Country: Norway
Released: 26 Feb 2021

Tracklist

A1        Ride The Whimbrel
A2        Age Of Iron Man
A3        Mumia
A4        Cauldron Bog
B1        Dog's Flesh
B2        Moss Goddess
C1        Black Incubation
C2        Et Moselik
C3        Heksejakt
D1        (The Marvellous And Murderous) Mysteries Of Sacrifice

Lineup

Benediktator (Benedikt Momrak): Bass, lead vocals, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, percussion. He also handled production and field recordings.

Krizla (Kristoffer Momrak): Flute, recorder, vocals, backing vocals.

HlewagastiR (Tomas Linnes): Drums, percussion.

Haugebonden Gode Gullstein (Filip Zenon): Keyboards, Mellotron, Hammond organ, analog synthesizers (MiniMoog), piano.

Åsa Ree: Violin, backing vocals.