To Måner

Valkyrien Allstars are hot property in Norway and they’re beginning to spread their fiery folk–rock outside the Norwegian borders. At home they’ve achieved cult status, so much so that no festival is complete without these east Norwegians. They’re driven hard from the front by their uncompromising lead singer and Hardanger fiddle player Tuva Syvertsen, backed up by two more Hardanger fiddle players, bass and drums. With their second album just out, their live performances now boast a feisty confidence more commonly seen in the pop and rock world. They’ve boldly taken traditional Norwegian music and forced it, without mercy, to give in to their demands. The tunes are there – the familiar scales and patterns of the Hardanger fiddle melodies – but Syvertsen is no meek and mild folk singer and the drums and bass provide plenty of ammunition for the front–line assault.

Live gigs are an exhausting, sweaty, fun affair, but that’s not to say they don’t have their lyrical depths too. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream is but one literary influence – there are words by the Norwegian poet Olav Hauge and by Ibsen, alongside Syvertsen’s own songs and traditional Setesdal tunes. If you ever get the opportunity, go to one of their gigs. Fall under the spell. Then buy the abum.