Norwegian folk duo Konradsen have a highly anticipated new album titled Michael’s Book on Bears on the way. It will be released on March 8, 2024 via 777 Music. On this new record, Konradsen bring us deeper into the fabric of life in their remote northern home and today are sharing album highlight “Scandinavian Dynamite,” a song reflecting on girlhood friendships upon returning home. Konradsen said, “Scandinavian Dynamite is a tribute to your childhood girl gang and all the laughter that broke out and all the tears you shed together. We wrote this song with Martin Miguel Almagro Tonne from the band Pom Poko who helped us expand our universe.”
Today also saw the release of “Dološ Viessu,” which features Emil Karlsen, a Sami artist. The Sami people are native to the arctic and traditionally are nomadic people that herd reindeer. In Northern Norway they live in almost all parts of the region and bring a rich culture and connection to the land to their communities. February 6th is Norway’s day for Sami people and Konradsen are proud to honor their music culture with their collaboration with Emil Karlsen who performs a ‘joik’- a traditional form of song usually dedicated to a person, animal or place.
Konradsen previously released the hopeful and uplifting song, “Michael” and “Out in the Backyard.” It’s a perfect thesis of a tune that’s every bit as magnetic as the landscape it captures. The duo also released a live video filmed in Senja, a Norwegian island which can be seen below. Konradsen is also part of a new project by renowned singer-songwriter Bruce Hornsby (the Range, Grateful Dead, etc.) called CONTRAHOUSE that is currently being released on Ulyssa. CONTRAHOUSE is comprised of Gabriel Guerra, Lucas de Paiva, Bruce Hornsby and Jenny Konradsen who form a unique and unexpected experimental quartet.
Enchanting and slyly provocative, Michael’s Book on Bears began like a postcard, an open invitation to leave the cities of the world behind. During the dawning days of the pandemic, singer Jenny Marie Sabel and multi-instrumentalist Eirik Vildgren finally made good on a plan they’d both considered: exiting Oslo to return to the rural reaches of northern Norway, where they’d both been raised. Eirik decamped to Senja, a mountain-bound island at the edge of the Norwegian Sea. With her young family, Jenny landed further east in her hometown of Storfjord, becoming a schoolteacher and building a cottage in her parents’ backyard with her husband by hand.
Michael’s Book of Bears affords glimpses into the lives Jenny, Eirik, and those around them lead in Norway’s high latitudes and the everyday magic it conjures. There is fish roe and the Northern Lights, fire and ice, a lullaby-like cover of Terje Nilsen’s document of existence high in Scandinavia and a song rendered in the tongue of the indigenous Sámi people.
Inspired by the Mikael Niemi’s classic tale of northern Scandinavian intrigue, To Cook a Bear, and experiences Konradsen had back at home, Michael’s Book of Bears feels like a diary, distilled into its inspirational essence and then recast as 11 gorgeous hymns, all proud of the woods from which they came.
Konradsen has announced a run of dates in Norway for 2024, see below for a full rundown and watch this space for additional touring plans.
Upcoming Tour Dates
(Norway):
3/8/24 – Parkteateret, Oslo
3/9/24 – HAVET, Trondheim
3/15/24 – Kirka på Hatteng
3/16/24- Verdensteatret, Tromsø
3/21/24 – Tou scene, Stavanger
3/22/24 – Kulturhuset, Bergen
