Jørgen Dretvik is yet another name unknown to me yet he has been about for some three decades doing his musical thing. His current album “UnderVerden” takes him on a journey through the harder end of the alt-folk genre with occasional diversions into matters mystical. This might be interesting.
The album is sung entirely in Norwegian yet that is no impediment to the listener’s enjoyment. That said, I do listen to a fair amount of Nordic melodic metal, so I might have developed an ear for that language. In fact, “Underverden” translates to “Underworld” so there might be more in common with the leather clad purveyors of power chords than you might expect. The presentation, however, is entirely different here though with the point of each song being made with a combination of Jørgen Dretvik’s emotive, sometimes theatrical, vocals and festival friendly arrangements that feature folk familiar instruments like a bandoneon. Everything on this duly sounds polished and professional but never at the expense of the drama that is part and parcel of the performance. And it is the performance that makes this album. Jørgen Dretvik has a story to tell and it is something of a metaphysical tale with each song taking us closer to the end in “Apokalypse i nuet “. That translates to “Apocalypse Now” in English. A point is clearly being made.
I like albums that have a story to tell and “Underverden” indeed has a story to tell. Jørgen Dretvik tells that story with style and, combined with his undoubted maturity in musical matters, that makes his album an interesting one.
Available on vinyl from Bandcamp and also from the usual digital places.