Tomas Raae’s latest release, …før de spredtes, is built on the melodic DNA of Nordic folk music, but with a clear eye on the present. Featuring vocalist Eline Hellerud Åsbakk, the album draws from centuries of Danish and Norwegian song traditions without sounding like a museum piece. These nine tracks carry old ballads from as far back as the 1300s into a space that feels alive, immediate, and carefully handled.
Raae blends traditional melodies with his own writing, giving the album an unpredictable edge. The result isn’t clean nostalgia – he doesn’t wrap these songs in soft focus. Instead, they land with clarity. A few are direct reinterpretations of historic material, while others are new songs written in the same spirit. It’s a subtle shift that opens up the whole project.
Åsbakk’s vocals are essential. She sings with a kind of clear-eyed stillness that holds the weight of the material without turning it heavy. Her background in improvisational jazz and folk traditions finds a good match in Raae’s arrangements, which move between acoustic instruments, analog textures, field recordings, and minimal electronics.
There’s a quiet pulse running through the album – not in tempo, but in tone. You feel the snow, the coastline, the space between words. Songs like “Jeg savner din stemme” and “Træerne står nøgne” hold onto silence like it’s part of the music itself.
This isn’t ambient music or background listening. It sits well with film and narrative sound design because of its attention to atmosphere and emotion, but it’s made with focus and intent. If you’re drawn to the kind of sound where folk, minimalism, and memory intersect, …før de spredtes delivers.
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