kurbits & flames (2022)
What is Kurbits & Flames? A concept is what it is.
It is our high-octane turbocharged reimagination of traditional Swedish folk music. A catastrophony consisting only of existing and future jam hits on Swedish folk music festivals, deliberately blown to pieces in our effort to both honor and hassle our heritage. It's "traditional folk" in the sense that it has to be approachable, easy and open enough for everyone to participate, but also intricate, unique and interesting enough for the tunes and dances to hold up for hundreds of years. By these measures, old folk music is just pop that isn't pop anymore, but still has all the potential after all this time.
Kurbits (rose painting) is an old traditional art form, a way of decorating furniture and pottery. Very popular in the 1700s! Flames are what you would paint on your own super awesome old school car. Very popular in the 1950s! We'd like to imagine there is a connection here.
We've picked the tunes from our favourite old spelmän (≈fiddlers) from all over Sweden; a wide assortment of classics written by everything from magicians to murderers (at least partly true). As is tradition, the tunes and their authors are accompanied by a lot of intriguing stories about dedication, strife, heartbreak, buying a striped skirt so people will propose to you, and learning to play from the devil. We don't have space to go into all of these great stories of old, but you are very welcome to visit a concert and hear the lies yourself.
Because this is supposed to be music that you want to take part in. To be there, jam the tunes yourself, dance to them, experience the culture first hand, and get inspired to write more. Let's make it so - let folk be pop again!
Nominated for Folk music of the year at both the Manifest gala and the Grammis (Swedish Grammy) gala (2023).
"En platta att både skråla, dansa, drömma och, ja, bli rent lycklig av.”
- Esmeralda Moberg, Folkmusiken i P2
"Musik för festen, lyxigt dränkt i överraskningar av ett knappt dussin unga och våghalsiga stjärnor från den europeiska folkmusikscenen. Wow!"
- Peter Ahlbom, Spelmannen
discography
______________________________________________________________________________________________
château du garage (2019)
Château du Garage is a lesser cacophony made of illicitly distilled folk music, here being served in a deliciously tailored menu. How about a slow cooked ragu with the best from the French and Canadian cuisine, or a taste of the bittersweet Swedish speciality from Värmland and Jämtland? There is something on the menu for everyone - a guest performance with the amazing a cappella quartet Åkervinda, some table dancing and of course also something sweeter for dessert.
Nominated for Album of the year and Composer of the year (Nisse Blomster) på DMA Folk Awards 2019 [DK].
” Un album à ne pas laisser passer!” – Gérard Viel, 5planetes.com
”Når hele dette veritable overflødighedshorn emmer af solide spilletekniske og musikalske
kvalifikationer, serveret med oprigtigt smilende fornøjelse, kan det ikke gå galt.
Det gør det heller ikke. ”Château du Garage” er en kraftpræstation(…) – Nils Thorlund, Rootszone.dk
______________________________________________________________________________________________
den nya spisen (2017)
Let us picture that we want to see Spöket i köket live. Of course you want to, not only with this band in particular, but with all bands as it is the ultimate way to experience them. However, this format only offers prerecorded music, so we will instead imagine that you make the best of the situation.
Please do not mimic the live format by placing riot fences in your living room to then boost the volume up to eleven, so that your windows shatter and you alarm an enraged, but kind of impressed, community response team. It's never gonna be the same. Instead, play this album in the background at a party, as an indulgence when you are sitting in your favorite chair, with something funny in your glass. In your earphones to escape from reality in your everyday life whilst sitting opposite some likable, but at the moment aggressively dull, people on the tram. It also works great for road trips.
Spöket i köket was nominated to Newcomer of the year at Folk- och Världsmusikgalan in connection with the album 'Den nya spisen'.
