Lumsk
Encyclopedia
Lumsk is a folk metal
band from Trondheim
, Norway
. It combines traditional Norwegian folk music and folklore
with rock
, progressive rock
and metal
. The group has both male and female vocals with violin, guitar and drums.
called Åsmund Frægdegjevar in 2001 under contract with the record company Spinefarm Records
. The next year, the band moved to Tabu Recordings
and released their debut album, which had the same title as the previously released EP. The album was characterized by its blend of classical instruments and heavy metal. The songs make up a narrative about the saga of Åsmund
, who in Lumsk's interpretation sails from Ireland
to rescue a king's daughter from a group of troll
s.
Several years later, and with a new vocalist, the band released its second album, called Troll. The album was a departure in many ways from its predecessor - the band had gotten a new vocalist and guitarist, and as a whole the music was not as heavy or dark as on the debut album. There were also fewer songs, and together they didn't compose one narrative, but were rather stories in and of themselves; stories which were based on Nordic mythology and were written by the saga author Birger Sivertsen and his wife Kristin.
The same year the band released the single Nidvisa, which, in addition to the song Allvis from Troll, contained a song written for the action group Give Us Back Christmas (Gi oss jula tilbake in Norwegian) in protest against department stores' early Christmas
decorating. The profits from the sale of the single also went to the group.
On February 26, 2007, Lumsk released their third full-length album, entitled Det Vilde Kor
. On this album, Lumsk have added music to Det Vilde Kor, which is a collection of poems written by the famous Norwegian
poet Knut Hamsun
. With this album the music departed from its folk metal sound and incorporated a calmer and slightly more progressive nature.
In July 2007 Espen announced on Lumsk's website that Ketil and Siv Lena would be leaving the band due to a baby being born. They were replaced by Swedish musicians Håkan Lundqvist and Jenny Gustafsson. In 2009 Annelise Ofstad Aar joined the band, as a replacement for vocalist Stine Mari Langstrand, who also left in 2007.
Folk metal
Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...
band from Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. It combines traditional Norwegian folk music and folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
with rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
. The group has both male and female vocals with violin, guitar and drums.
Biography
After having released a self-produced demo, the band released an EPExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
called Åsmund Frægdegjevar in 2001 under contract with the record company Spinefarm Records
Spinefarm Records
Spinefarm Records is a Finland-based record label focusing mainly on heavy metal artists. In 1999, a sub-label titled Spikefarm Records was started by Sami Tenetz from Thy Serpent...
. The next year, the band moved to Tabu Recordings
Tabu Recordings
Tabu Recordings is an independent Norwegian record label founded in 2003 in Oslo. It is owned by Tuba Records, a major Scandinavian independent music distributor...
and released their debut album, which had the same title as the previously released EP. The album was characterized by its blend of classical instruments and heavy metal. The songs make up a narrative about the saga of Åsmund
Ásmundar saga kappabana
Ásmundar saga kappabana is the saga of Asmund the Champion-Killer, a legendary saga from Iceland, first attested in the manuscript Stockholm, Royal Library, Holm. 7, 4to, from the first half of the fourteenth century...
, who in Lumsk's interpretation sails from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to rescue a king's daughter from a group of troll
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
s.
Several years later, and with a new vocalist, the band released its second album, called Troll. The album was a departure in many ways from its predecessor - the band had gotten a new vocalist and guitarist, and as a whole the music was not as heavy or dark as on the debut album. There were also fewer songs, and together they didn't compose one narrative, but were rather stories in and of themselves; stories which were based on Nordic mythology and were written by the saga author Birger Sivertsen and his wife Kristin.
The same year the band released the single Nidvisa, which, in addition to the song Allvis from Troll, contained a song written for the action group Give Us Back Christmas (Gi oss jula tilbake in Norwegian) in protest against department stores' early Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
decorating. The profits from the sale of the single also went to the group.
On February 26, 2007, Lumsk released their third full-length album, entitled Det Vilde Kor
Det Vilde Kor
Det Vilde Kor is the third full-length album by the Norwegian folk metal band Lumsk. It was released on February 26, 2007 by Tabu Recordings...
. On this album, Lumsk have added music to Det Vilde Kor, which is a collection of poems written by the famous Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
poet Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul....
. With this album the music departed from its folk metal sound and incorporated a calmer and slightly more progressive nature.
In July 2007 Espen announced on Lumsk's website that Ketil and Siv Lena would be leaving the band due to a baby being born. They were replaced by Swedish musicians Håkan Lundqvist and Jenny Gustafsson. In 2009 Annelise Ofstad Aar joined the band, as a replacement for vocalist Stine Mari Langstrand, who also left in 2007.
Current members
- Espen Warankov Godø - KeyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
(2000-) - Eystein Garberg - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(2001-) - Espen Hammer - Bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(2002-) - Ketil Sæther - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(2004–2007, 2009-) - Vidar Berg - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(2005-) - Annelise Ofstad Aar - vocals (2009-)
Former Members
- Snorre Hovdal - Bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Bjørnar Selsbak - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Øyvind R - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Vibeke Arntzen - vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
- Sondre Øien - Bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Steinar Årdal - Male vocals
- Alf Helge Lund - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(1999–2005) - Siv Lena Waterloo Laugtug - ViolinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
(2001–2007) - Ketil Sæther - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(2004–2007) - Stine Mari Langstrand - vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
(2004–2007) - Håkan Lundqvist - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(2007) - Jenny Gustafsson - ViolinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
(2007)
Albums
- Åsmund FrægdegjevarÅsmund Frægdegjevar (album)Åsmund Frægdegjevar is the first full-length album by the Norwegian folk metal band Lumsk. It was released on August 25, 2003 by Spikefarm...
(2003) - TrollTroll (album)Troll is the second full-length album by the Norwegian folk metal band Lumsk. It was released on June 6, 2005 by Tabu Recordings. The songs tell different stories about trolls and spirits in Norwegian folklore.-Track listing:...
(2005) - Det Vilde KorDet Vilde KorDet Vilde Kor is the third full-length album by the Norwegian folk metal band Lumsk. It was released on February 26, 2007 by Tabu Recordings...
(2007)