Folque - Folque

Artist:             Folque

Album:           Folque

Year:              1974

Line-Up:         Lisa Helljesen - Vocals
Jørn Jensen - Vocals, guitar, dulcimer
Trond Villa – Fiddle, Hardander fiddle, viola, electric guitar
Morten Bing - Guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo
Eilif Amundsen – Vocals, banjo, guitar, dulcimer, mandolin
Trond Øverland - Bass, flute, piano

Label:             Phonogram (1974), Pan Records (1993 re-release)

 

I don’t even remember how I came across this album, but it got me immediately. Listening to it now after many years I remember feelings from my youth. That is one of the beauties of music; it raises, captures and hangs onto emotions. Folque can bring you beautiful melodies with deep interpretation and cheerful rhythms with joyful attitude.

The story of this rocky folk group takes us back to the 70’s and to Oslo, Norway. After some touring of Morten Bing, Eilif Amundsen and Jørn Jensen and few recruits the band started to make their own music under the name "Brød og Vin" (Bread and Wine) and after their sound developed more they changed the name to “Folque” and Trond Villa, and Trond Øverland joined the band to make their debut album “Folque”. They played translated English folk songs as well as traditional Norwegian folk songs spiced up with mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and dulcimer. Flutes and fiddle followed and after Jørn Jensen bought a Telecaster, the band changed from acoustic folk rock to electric folk rock with male and female vocals. After a TV-appearance and a demo, Phonogram Records (a joint venture between Dutch Philips Records and German Deutsche Grammophon) signed the band and in the fall of 1974 the album was published. It even had a radio-hit called “reinlender”, a schottische.

After the debut-album the band started having problems with its members but managed to have over a decade-long career and one re-union at the turn of the century. The first three albums, “Folque”, “Kjempene På dovrefjell”, and ”Vardøger” were re-released by Pan-Records in the 90’s. Pan-Records is a Dutch label concentrating on traditional music from all over the world. So the first three albums should be easier to find. If folky rock in any ways makes you tick, here is beautiful and well-arranged music for your ears.

Here’s the album opener of the re-released version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq4hrmUT7Oc

Written by: Oz