Live Report: Blåsvart Aften #16

Event name: Blåsvart Aften #16

Artists: Norðr (NO) / Pauldron (NO) / Beckahesten (SE)

Venue: Good Omens

Location: Trondheim, Norway

Date: 29th March 2025

16 editions are a formidable tally for anything, let alone a dark ambient festival. And yet, Jan Roger of Svartsinn fame keeps organising it in the beautiful Trondheim in Norway, a fantastic destination to visit, but a less-than-obvious place for an international festival. I have to admit that what drew me to this specific edition was not just the lineup itself (for once!), but also the timing - while the festival usually takes place in the suitably dark and cold November, this year Jan Roger decided to mix it up and try organising it in late March. I was curious what effect early spring would have on potential dark ambient concertgoers vs. the usual deep winter; all I know is that I was certainly able to pack lighter than usual, and for all my credentials and music preferences, I admit that I enjoyed longer days to bask in the beauty of the Norwegian West Coast.

This was not the only change to the event format - another novelty was that there wouldn't be four artists in quick succession in the lineup, but three of them, with half-hour breaks in between, giving both the audience and the organisers a bit more breathing room to get everything just right. This also means that Jan Roger's house was a bit less crowded during the customary dinner on the night leading up to the festival, although this doesn't seem to have had any impact on alcohol consumption, and we may or may not have ended up in the city centre of Trondheim for a nightcap or five afterwards. In the event, despite not being fully recovered from Friday's libations, on Saturday afternoon it was time to head to the already traditional venue Good Omens for the soundchecks et al.

Norðr (NO)

It has become customary for a less known local act to open each edition of Blåsvart Aften, although I have to admit that the quality of the acts selected has grown exponentially in recent years. This time it was the turn of Norðr to do the honours. The brainchild of Joeri Woldberg, Norðr has been crafting quality cinematic dark ambient for almost a decade, although prioritising quality over quantity, which is why his discography is not as extensive as one might expect. Those with a keener eye will notice that the artist's name doesn't exactly sound Norwegian, and the reason is simple - Joeri is a native Dutchman who made Norway his permanent home only in 2015, which coincided with his starting the project and even inspired its name (meaning "northbound" in Old Norse). His performance started off in a pretty massive way, with a slow rumble and mere hints of a background melody giving off a very old-school vibe, akin to early Cyclic Law releases. With the deep bass intensifying over images of cracking icebergs and gushing torrents, the sound slowly evolved into a monumental representation of nature's most destructive forces, and the cataclysmic mood was aided by the addition of rhythmic sections. One particularly powerful theme featured in the video backdrop at this point was the sight of Death banging on a drum and causing a nuclear explosion with each hit, hinting at the subject matter of Norðr's latest album, The Catastrophe of a Self-Destructive Mentality. As the imagery evolved into images of the Chernobyl disaster, the music gave way to a somewhat calmer, if more brooding mood, with string instruments and whispering vocals taking the fore. The sound became more melodic, with violin-like tunes, followed by tribal rhythms and guttural vocals playing in front of images of frostbound mountains, nicely connecting the set into a full circle. A remarkably strong set for an opening act, and one that I hope will inspire Joeri to continue in the same direction for his future work.

Pauldron (NO)

Recent editions of Blåsvart Aften have usually featured a dungeon synth act, and this edition was no exception. Pauldron hail from a part of the Norwegian coast not too far off from Trondheim itself, and play a very peculiar type of dungeon synth, self-styled as RPG-oriented and reptilian. While the project is a solo one at its core, its live lineup consists of no less than three members, and the peculiarities do not stop there. Pauldron is definitely at the experimental end of dungeon synth, with most of their compositions having a clear rhythmic backbone, further enriched by a spacey vibe bordering on trip hop at times, as well as certain elements usually associated with traditional music from the Far East. Their visuals are no less extravagant, with various images of forests, swamps and other natural settings featuring reptiloids of various kinds, from dinosaurs, over lizards, to snakes. Perhaps the most surprising part of their set, amongst all the aforementioned weirdness, was the cover of Dimmu Borgir's Det Nye Riket, which instantly resonated with probably everyone in the audience and definitely unlocked some core memories for myself. That said, I have to admit that I found the band somewhat poorly rehearsed considering the benefit of having three members handling live duties, and the mood shifts between different tracks were also quite drastic, which definitely drew the occasional confused look from the audience. Nevertheless, it's nice to see a band trying out something different in a genre way too burdened with clichés, even if the success rate is not 100%.

Beckahesten (SE)

At last, it was time for the Swedish magicians Beckahesten to grace the stage. This curiously named project draws its name from an ancient Swedish folk tale about a horse that takes children onto its back and takes them to a nearby lake to drown (as a side note, Swedish children of yore must have been pretty traumatised by their bedtime stories, but that's a topic for another article altogether). Although this duo only started releasing music under this moniker in 2020, its members, Peo Bengtsson & Per Åhlund, are Swedish scene veterans, and the quality of their work matches their reputation. As expected from their unique mix of dark ambient, industrial elements and folk music, the set opened with sounds of birds and nature with a pulsing background bass, slowly amplified by the addition of ringing bells and windpipe instruments skillfully handled by Peo. As the video backdrop evolved into images of drops disturbing reflections of red skies in the water, Per unleashed his throat singing talents to powerful effect. I have to admit that the live version of Beckahesten sounds a lot more primal than what you can hear on their albums, perhaps due to the sheer power of spoken word making for an almost unsettling feeling, ranging between deep musings and nightmarish shrieks laid over guitar drones. In a pretty genius turn of events, the backdrop evolved from dreamscapes into excerpts from Beckahesten's own live performances, albeit with a psychedelic touch, making for a curious meta-experience. The power of the rhythm was almost overwhelming at times, especially when aided by scenes of fire and the sound of cymbals. Coming almost as a relief, the set closed with a more traditional dark ambient track driven by a synth background, lulling the audience back into relative safety. To finish things off, and perhaps add a touch of rock-style innuendo to the performance, the band walked off the stage minutes before the music actually came to a halt, leaving us in a loop that could have gone on forever in my book. An extremely potent statement of a show that I'd happily repeat the first chance I get. Curiously enough, Per told me after the performance that this was one of their tamer editions; I almost shudder to think what a fully unleashed version would look and sound like.

In sum, while this edition of Blåsvart Aften featured one band less than usual, that did little to detract from the overall experience. The event lost nothing of its magic with the change of seasons, and the sound was as crisp and clear as ever. I applaud Jan Roger for the umpteenth time on his drive and commitment to a fickle and financially ruinous scene, but true art rarely resides in the mainstream, and my sole hope is that we will start seeing younger faces in the audience in the years to come. Be that as it may, Blåsvart Aften remains as a black stone monument of Scandinavian dark ambient, and I wish it a long life to come.

(Artist photos kindly provided by Terje Frostad.)