The biggest cliché in press releases is to call something “unique”, but sometimes it’s hard to avoid.
When people try to pin down what makes Evigheten (“The Eternity”) so special, people mention Enya, Dungen, Sissel Kyrkjebø and breakbeats in the same sentence. Njål Paulsberg, songwriter and producer, explains the bands sounds as James Brown-influenced drums, Kraftwerk-ish synth lines and the clavinet from Serge Gainsbourg recordings, topped with angelic vocals. Bass player Arne Toivo Fjose Sandberg and drummer Cato Furdal Lyngholm is a tight, swinging rhythm section. The stellar vocal trio on top consists of Mathilde Saunes-Skarsgaard, Iselin Børve Toft and Tonje Indrehus. They met in Multa Paucis, a choir which combines Scandinavian traditional and contemporary classical music.
“Life is the most extreme part of what we have chosen to call existence”
The distinct, but open sonic spaces of Evighetens music provides them with ample room to show of their breathtaking vocal ranges. All of this could have seemed a bit too pretentious, were it not for the lyrics - stark, mystical exchanges about life in a world we don’t quite understand.
“Life is the most extreme part of what we have chosen to call existence”, the three singers declare in one of their songs. Evigheten can be compared with several other examples of a new form of artful sincerity in Norwegian music. They could also be a piece of contrafactual music history - as if someone suddenly discovered a weird, hip christian pop scene from a couple of decades ago. But most of all, they do what all great bands do: Sound like nothing but themselves while at the same time reminding you of something.
