Østerlide

The Hub, 16/8/2025

Østerlide, Ulrik Ibsen Thorsrud, percussion, Andreas Haddeland, guitar, Liv Ulvik, vocal

Percussion, voice and guitars would be a working description of the forces deployed by the Norwegian trio, Østerlide, but that wouldn’t come close to suggesting the sounds they make. Percussionist Ulrik Ibsen Thorsrud, for example, works from a horizontal bass drum on to which are variously laid a single bongo drum, bowls, different species of rattly things, and notably the bare bones of a fiddle across which, on the opening number Gjeterjenta he drew a bow, while applying the soft beater to the drum. Meantime his guitarist colleague, Andreas Haddeland, also applied a bow to scratch out a folk melody on his electric guitar. The interplay of bowed sounds then provided a backdrop for the impeccable, soaring vocals of singer, Liv Ulvik. This opening number gave a foretaste of what was to come: the ethereal and rubato giving way to the rhythms of folk melodies, dramatic and ethereal soundscapes, unexpected timbres being coaxed from familiar instruments.

Not that all the instruments were familiar. A mediaeval ballad concerning that icon of Scottish-Nordic connections, the Maid of Norway, featured an instrument resembling a psaltery or a squashed balalaika. Throughout the set the music and voice conjured visions of deserted shores, snowy landscapes and bare mountains, and it struck this reviewer that Østerlide’s work owes something to a strain of seventies prog-rock, which drew on the mythical, the supernatural, and the otherworldly. But it’s a kind of stripped-down version, far from the bombast normally associated with that genre, that pays absolute respect to the source material. Speaking briefly to vocalist Ulvik after the show, she confirmed that the texts and original melodies remain untouched, whatever riffing, slide guitar, and rhythmic innovations are in play.

It was clear that making a new garb for these old songs, enhancing and supporting their inherent drama was the aim of the project. This was creative music-making of the highest order, embraced by a very appreciative Festival audience. They were rewarded by a beautiful encore, featuring Ibsen Thorsrud on a delicately played musical saw, that drew on Portuguese fado, allowing Ulvik to express some of the ‘big feelings’ that the stolid Norwegian repertoire rarely allows.

Photo credit: Skeie Ljones