Various artists - Frendafolket - 1985 - KZ - NACD603

Trygve Mathiesen was one of the driving forces behind the Norwegian cassette movement in the 1980s. He was behind a large number of releases with other artists on the Likvidér label, but also released the solo cassette El in 1983. This served as a precursor to Ym:stammen, where Mathiesen originally played together with Oddvar Karlsmyr and Dag-Olav Sivertsen. Ym:stammen released the cassette albums I vi:landet and Overvintrende , both in 1984.

Mathiesen had started out as a provocateur and punk, and was also active in the fanzine culture. But now he became increasingly interested in folk music, as well as Norse mythology and history. This led to him establishing the sub-label Sang. Frendafolket was published in 1985, and offers music that is to varying degrees inspired by traditional music.

There is a fairly diverse group of artists on the release. Eli Storbekken is the daughter of the great folk musician Egil Storbekken, and participated in his releases Helsing frå Østerdalen (1977) and Trolldans (1984). Øyvind Rauset had been in the classic folk rock band Folque, and together with British Richard Burgess released the LP Landskap med to f igurer in 1982.

Other artists came more from the environments that arose in the wake of the new wave. This included Polish-born Andreij Dzubjek Nebb, who broke through with De Press and experimented further with Holy Toy. Den 3. Generasjon and White Lord Jesus also came from the post-punk and more alternative rock scene. The latter have Nils Økland on the harding fiddle with them. He would later push the boundaries of instrumental folk music here at home, not least with Blå harding from 1996.

We can also note Autistic Children, which was started by Jan Harry Kallevig and Jørn Smedslund. Kallevig also worked on fanzines, and ran the cassette company Consum with a special emphasis on artists from Haugesund. From Arendal came Døve Munker, who in 1992 made a remake of "Jeg arme synder" for the soundtrack to the Thomas Robsahm film Svarte pantere .