Video: Konradsen Share Live Session Video Of “Out In The Backyard'

Earlier this month, Norwegian folk duo Konradsen announced their sophomore album Michael's Book on Bears to be released on March 8, 2024 via 777 Music. With the album announcement, they also shared the first taste of the new music. “Out in the backyard,” the album's opener and a perfect thesis of a tune that's every bit as magnetic as the landscape it captures. 

Ahead of the holidays, Konradsen gifts us with a gorgeous live performance video of “Out in the backyard.” The performance was captured on Senja, a Norwegian island and the backdrop for life in their work this time of year. 

Konradsen had this to say about the video, ”Kråkeslottet is an old fishery on the outer coast of Senja in Norway. It was abandoned in the 60s and was taken over and turned into a cultural space in the 70s. Since then it's been the location for concerts, music festivals, art festivals and much more. It's been a very important place to us for many years, but now it's sadly been sold. It was too hard to run, and big money has swooped in and bought the place to build a luxury hotel, and perhaps tear the whole thing down. We planned to make this video, and this was our last chance to make something in Kråkeslottet. This video is a celebration for our new music coming out, but also a goodbye.” 

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.

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. 

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.

Watch the new performance video here:

Upcoming Tour Dates (Norway):

3/8/24 - Parkteateret, Oslo

3/9/24 - HAVET, Trondheim

3/21/24 - Tou scene, Stavanger

3/22/24 - Kulturhuset, Bergen

Photo Credit: Marthe Thu

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