One of the nice surprises for me last year was the release 'En Natt Kom Doed'. Entirely acoustic and minimalistic, the album wasn't metal at all, but so utterly dark and beautiful.
This time around, Erik Evju has made an almost equally fantastic work of art. The expression has become even more minimalistic, with even more sparse instrumentation and thus leaving even more room for Erik's voice and the acoustic guitar. If this music were a woman, she'd only be wearing her panties, that's how naked and vulnerable this is. But this is a woman who can take it! Erik sings, not with a great voice, but with a voice which has confidence and knows its limitations. The music isn't complex, really, but it's effective.
'Folkloren' probably has slightly less variation, and at the same time a notch less of the deep, Scandinavian darkness which Erik E captures so well than its predecessor, and therefore I'm still a bigger fan of 'En Natt Kom Doed'. That said, this is still 40 minutes of music I really enjoy listening to when I need to relax and think. Beautiful.
