Norwegian Folk Duo Konradsen Release New Single 'Michael'

Norwegian folk duo Konradsen are returning in 2024 with a new album titled Michael's Book on Bears. It will be released on March 8, 2024 via 777 Music. 

Today, they are sharing another gorgeous single, the hopeful and uplifting “Michael.” Jenny's vocals soar along with a gentle saxophone which carefully guides the song. The band explains “Michael depicts scenes from childhood and the tug-of-war between the good and the bad memories. It also deals with the longing for a choice of path. Here, Aleksander Waaktaar (girl in red, Dagny, Astrid S) has given the song the string arrangement it needed.”

Konradsen previously released the song “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

3/21/24 - Tou scene, Stavanger

3/22/24 - Kulturhuset, Bergen

Photo Credit: Marthe Thu

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