TUSMØRKE – Balderdom

RELEASE YEAR: 2026
BAND URL: https://tusm-rke.bandcamp.com/album/balderdom

Few if any acts are as musically devious, lyrically interesting, deeply eclectic, and all-out quirky as the inimitable Tusmørke are, and those are obviously traits and characteristics to be loved and admired. Whenever they unearth new material, you know that it is going to be positively strange and surreal yet never anything but original-sounding and wholly unique. Their spirited concoction of prog, psychedelic rock, and eerie folk music works wonders for the mind and soul. All of that brings us to their upcoming opus titled Balderdom, so let us take a closer look at that, shall we?

Consisting of five sprawling compositions that are as bonkers, shape-shifting, and occasionally brilliant as expected and whose themes revolve around the turn of the seasons and the dichotomies between night and day, past and present (or is that future?), there is plenty of juicy stuff for fans of the group to sink their teeth into here. Opening track “Svensk Drøm” strikes a good balance between the unsettling, the humorous, and the charmingly weird, and from that point on we are treated to parts and passages that embody the dreamlike, the disorientating, and the whimsical – all of which reveals and exposes Tusmørke’s dark underbelly. So far, so good. However, Balderdom is arguably also one of the more uneven and oftentimes frustrating LPs in the band’s canon when it comes to cohesion, quality, and the notion of maintaining momentum throughout. While “Svensk Drøm,” “Balderdom (Tres Jolie),” and the sprawling “Lidskjalv” work splendidly on so many levels, “Rerun of Forever (Stravinsky)” and “Vi Er Et Kollektiv” are meandering affairs that fail to get properly and merely seem to drift by without leaving any notable, striking impression. In that sense, the record loses a bit of steam halfway through before it picks up again right at the end.

As they have proven time and again in the past, Tusmørke possess the ability to astonish, but on Balderdom they sometimes falter or overreach and thereby lose that unique balance between wonderfully challenging psychedelia and expertly crafted prog with memorable qualities aplenty on the one hand and a certain sense of self-indulgence on the other. Still, the positives undoubtedly outweigh the negatives and the aforementioned “Lidskjalv,” the twenty-minute closing track that they have tried to record properly for roughly thirty years, is a rousing yet hummable composition that needs to be experienced. As with all of their releases, this one also warrants exploration and investment, but it does not reach the heights of Fjernsyn i Farger, Nordisk Krim, or Hestehoven.