ALBUM REVIEW: Dawn Of Oberon – Tusmørke
Norway is home to many outlandish, eccentric, extravagant and weird bands but when it comes down to it the undisputed kings of all four of those adjectives are TUSMØRKE. Hailing from the beautiful municipality of Skien in Norway, the psychedelic, progressive folk rock quartet have been indulging us mere mortals with exuberant prog albums inspired by the international bronze age, local myth, pareidolia and stargazing since 2012. Now they return with their newest fever dream of a record in Dawn Of Oberon – which is the band’s 12th album, released 12 years after their debut Underjordisk Tusmørke and apparently because that is 12-12-12 it makes this album twice as occult as 666. So with that in mind, buckle up kid as this is a mad one.
Dawn Of Oberon sees TUSMØRKE take us on an subterranean expedition to the kingdom of the Fair Folk, with Oberon of course being King of the Fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature – and immortalised in the great bard William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hoping to open up your eyes to entertain the reality of things unseen and willing you to embrace fairy folklore whilst simultaneously recognising a turbulent time in the band’s history – one where their new drummer became their former drummer within the space of eight months, must have been the fairies, surely? – Dawn Of Oberon is also a manifestation of Peter Pan Syndrome, with the band never growing up just getting old, and now wandering with fairies.
With all that in mind, musically TUSMØRKE’s brand of prog is rooted firmly in the hallucinogenic days of the 1960s and 1970s but quite possibly with more eccentricity and madness – this is the band that wrote a 26-minute long song about the Black Death after all. The Dawn Of Oberon is no different, except there is an added layer of joyously whimsical nonsense. From the elegant flute passages to the gentle tinkling of keys and swelling synths, TUSMØRKE have taken the life, times and world of Oberon very seriously and have fashioned an album that makes you feel like dancing around a ring of fly agaric mushrooms and summoning a fairy yourself.
The album draws you in with this fascinating warmth that triggers a nostalgia to read those fairy stories from your younger days and for some strange reason the TV theme tunes from 1970s shows. Yet there is more to Dawn Of Oberon than meets the eye; underneath the folky, whimsical façade you begin to uncover the mystical mischief that Oberon and his subjects get up to in the Otherworld. There is plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour, especially on the album’s second track Born To Be Mild which wonderfully spoofs STEPPENWOLF’s Born To Be Wild.
Every song on the album is a journey deeper down the metaphorical rabbit hole, getting more bizarre with each passing flute passage. Sometimes music just brings you a moment of insurmountable joy and laughter, it is impossible not to listen to this album without smiling the entire time at the sheer magic that TUSMØRKE have conjured up from the most mischievous fairy in all of folklore.
The album opens up with the nearly 18-minute long title track Dawn Of Oberon, an eccentric and vivid prog rock epic that charts the band’s transportation to the otherworld and how they have become insured in the court revelries and mischief. With plenty of flute melodies, vocal harmonies and piano/synth passages, it is a marvellous song that sets the tone for the album. Every song after Dawn Of Oberon is considered a sequel and called Dusk Of Tawblerawn with five parts.
The aforementioned Born To Be Mild is mostly instrumental – consisting of various instruments interweaving their melodies and grooves to create a magical song that continues the journey into the fairy kingdom – until the vocals come in with that recognisable vocal melody from Born To Be Wild and you’re left chuckling to yourself. Dwarven Lord has a Tolkien-esque vibe to it, musically it is a slower but anthemic song in a minor key, and is telling the dwarf lord not to be scared of the fairies of Oberon’s court.
Midsommernattsdrøm (Midsummer Night’s Dream) feels like Shakespeare on acid and has the grandeur of one of his plays in three acts, with jazzy keys and exquisite vocal harmonies and evolving textures and atmospheres. People View is an uplifting interlude that goes all out on synths which sets you up for the album closer Troll Male. Both tracks are instrumental, and offer up a nine-minute mystical and whimsical soundscape of 1970s-esque prog excellence to get lost in.
Dawn Of Oberon is truly an album that defies words; it’s a wonderfully crafted record that takes one of folklore’s most well known characters and gives him the concept album he deserves. There’s a reason why TUSMØRKE are considered Norway’s most out-there band, and this album further proves it in delightfully eccentric fashion.
Rating: 9/10
Dawn Of Oberon is set for release on August 30th via Karisma Records.
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