Kong Lavring - Kong Lavring (1977)

The debut album from this Norwegian band who released two albums before they gave up the ghost.

The list of those involved in this project is too long to mention. The lineup is a mix of bass, drums, guitars, piano and traditional Norwegian folk music instruments. Instruments you probably have never heard about before. The bassist Geir Holmsen has later played with Terje Rypdahl and other jazz musicians. The rest is unknown names for me.

There are also numerous female and male vocalists here. 

King Lavring is forty odd minutes with rocked and popped up old folk music hymns from Norway. Mostly from the long valleys in Norway. The lyrics is naive and almost childish in their innocence. They are indeed lyrics from an innocent time in the Norwegian history.

I am not a big fan of rocking/popping up or even making old folk tunes a lot more melodic by the use of pretty female vocals, piano, bass, guitars and drums. You are taking a lot of the bite out of the tunes. Then again, I don't like Norwegian folk music.

The songs are decent enough and the musicians has actually done something with the songs instead of just adding electricity to these old tunes. This is by no means a good album and I will never play it again. But I have heard far worse album than this one.

2 points