Search - Solefald :: Norrøn Livskunst

The Oslo/Berlin-based avant/black duo known as Solefald has always played True Norwegian Black Metal, but mixed it with saxophone, Hammond organ, prog riffs, poetry reading, electronic beats, screaming and vocal harmonies in the vein of Simon & Garfunkel which are just part of the reason the Solefald crew are considered strange animals in the black metal flock. Cornelius (Jakhelln, also active as Sturmgeist) is an author - in 2007 he won Bonnier Cappelens Great Nordic Novel Competition. Since then he has published a children s book, a collection of poetry and the crime novel Voguesville, where the alcoholic herring gull King investigates a satanic freemason murder.

With Norrøn livskunst, Solefald looks to early 1900-century Norway, when a young nation zealously engaged in exploring its cultural roots. Writers, painters and composers rediscovered Norse mythology, the Edda and the sagas. Houses and buildings were designed in the Norse dragon style and decorated with medieval motifs. Sports clubs were named after Norse deities, and Snorri Sturluson s Heimskringla had a natural place in every home. Explorers went out to conquer the most inhospitable regions of the world. Some of that same madness is underlying in black metal: When others hunt for fame and fast money, leave it to the Norwegians to colonise frozen continents and old cemeteries. As Cornelius Jakhelln s saga novel The Fall of the Gods states: They called it evil. They called it True Norwegian Black Metal .