Ingen Mere Gråter

There’s a subgenre called ‘dream pop’ that covers bands from Cocteau Twins to Beach House. Ævestaden’s music could be described as ‘dream folk.’ This Norwegian/Swedish trio’s debut album, Ingen Mere Gråter, is a little enigmatic gem – and I’m completely captivated.

Ævestaden are Eir Vatn Strøm, Levina Storåkern and Kenneth Lien, all fine multi-instrumentalists and singers. They describe their songs as being about the conscious and the subconscious, the secular and the sacred, life and death. They combine traditional instrumentation – lyre, fiddle, mouth harp, langeleik and kantele (zithers) – with a subtle use of electronics, creating an enchanting sonic backdrop to their melodically adventurous vocals. It’s hard to find comparisons but, at times, Ævestaden’s music reminded me of English psychedelic folk duo The Left Outsides. Ingen Mere Gråter is made up of three traditional songs and three originals, the finale being ‘Flytta’, where the music is gradually joined by the sound of a rainstorm, which ends abruptly before the final track ‘Heilo’ – 37 seconds of birdsong fading into the distance – as if to suggest, where human words and music cease, nature endures.