Tusmørke – En pakt med naturen (Karisma Records, 2025)
En Pakt Med Naturen is the first live release from Norwegian band Tusmørke. It was recorded in October 2024 at Oslo’s independent record store Big Dipper during the band’s 25th anniversary celebration. The album captures an all-acoustic set, where we discover the group’s longstanding fascination with folk horror aesthetics and pre-modern ritualism.
Tusmørke’s sound is rooted in folk-rock and early progressive psychedelia, along with medieval music, and Nordic folklore. The setting, Big Dipper’s intimate space, transformed the band’s sound into something more organic, pastoral, yet quirky and eery.
Benediktator, co-founder and vocalist, describes the project as a long-gestating vision. “We always wanted to make an acoustic record,” he notes, referencing early plans to record in a loghouse at Brekkeparken museum in Skien, Telemark. The acoustic lineup features flutes, strings, and hand percussion. It came together gradually, with key contributions from collaborators Åsa and Dauinghorn beginning in 2021. Several iterations of the band passed before the material took its final shape.
The recording eschews modern technology entirely; no synthesizers, no digital equipment. As Benediktator puts it, “There is only folk horror, and you are in league with nature.” The result evokes a timeless, uncanny space where myth, music, and memory converge.
Musicians: Benediktator on bass, vocals; Krizla on flute, vocals; Herjekongen on keyboards; Kusken on drums; Dauinghorn on guitars; and Åsa Ree on violin, backing vocals.
Track list:
- Høstjevndøgn
- Salomonsens Hage
- Singers and Swallows (CD only)
- Kjentmannen
- Heksejakt
- Age of Iron Man
- Cycle Of the Gylfaginning
- Den Behornede Guden
Buy En Pakt Med Naturen.