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Wrightegaarden, Langesund, Norway
July 8th 2005
Gåte

Langesund is a tiny village on the southern coast of Norway, home of nothing in particular, except for a ferry line to Denmark and a concert venue. The venue does, however, frequently get visits from bands of a certain size – at least on a Norwegian scale. On this particular warm and sunny Friday Gåte (in English “Riddle”) were the guests on the little outdoor stage built up in the backyard of an old merchant mansion nearby the sea. Even though the audiences could be counted on two hands when I arrived an hour before the concert, the area did eventually fill up rather well, with 250 paying visitors.


Gåte

Starting out as a live band extraordinaire in 1999 (when vocalist Gunnhild 13!), Gåte released their first EP in 2000. They were quickly picked up by Warner Media, who has released their two full length CDs; Jygri (2002) and Iselilja (2004). Their unique style is a fusion of traditional Norwegian folk and hard rock, with a twist of electronica, a dash of metal and still more. Some of the songs are based on traditional songs, for instance “Bendik og Årolilja”, “Jomfruva Ingebjør“ and “Gjendines Bånnsull”, but skilfully blended with modern bass, guitars and drums in addition to the Hardanger fiddle so typical of Norwegian folk. The lyrics are all sung in either various dialects, according to where the song comes from, or in new Norwegian, which gives the band a clear profile – and makes the work a bit harder for foreign listeners to understand the fairtytale-like lyrics. The band has also worked together with Knut Buen; maybe the most known spellemann and Hardanger fiddle player in Norway, and the song “Kjærleik” (Love) on their latest album is penned by him.

So far Jygri has been awarded with a Spellemannspris (Norwegian Grammy) and has reached a platinum status, receiving a veritable slide of positive reviews and earning the band the label as the newest and most alternative band established in the last ten years.

The band is centered around their two original members and siblings Gunnhild and Sveinung, respectively vocals and fiddle, with a charismatic guitarist Magnus (with the fascinating middle name “Robot”), helping them livening up the concerts with his stunts and energetic playing.

The good news for the readers of this webzine is that the band goes on tour in Germany this summer, with concerts in Berlin, München, Hamburg, Köln, M’era Luna and the Highfield Festival in Erfurt. Do not miss the opportunity!http://www.gaate.no

Music
Bass player Gjermund also does bass vocals, and he got the honour of starting the concert with “Fredlysning” before main vocalist Gunnhild enters the stage to a beautiful rendition of “Bendik og Årolilja”. She is often described as the mythical “Huldra”, with her characteristic voice, her dancing and her dreamlike stage performance, and she did deliver intensely beautiful versions of … almost everything on the setlist. Her voice can be described as a folky version of Mari Boine meets Björk, in truth something out of the ordinary, and the transition from CD to the stage does not at all affect the quality of her singing. The other members of Gåte also proved themselves indeed interesting without Gunnhild, with a hellishly fast “Ola I”. “Du som er ung” is a poem that Gåte has set melody to, and is a Norwegian equivalent to ”Die Gedanken sind frei”, with its message of peace and a request to the youth to not let itself be fooled by war mongrels. A worthy cause to go political for!
The sound was okay for being outdoors and even though it was in a backyard it didn't bounce back too much from the surrounding walls

Performance
Sadly, the concert did at no point really take off. The audience will have to bear a lot of the responsibility for that, as most were sitting comfortably in their chairs, listening and chatting idly, with only a hard core of fans standing in front of the stage. The truth be told, Gåte is not a singalong type of band, but they delivered a very solid show indeed, with a setlist mainly centered around the new album, with older stuff as well. Nobody took fiddler Sveinung’s challenge to join in dancing (“or whatever”) along to the “old-fashioned fuckjig”, and though Sveinung and Magnus in particular tried to get the audience to take more part, they were mostly rewarded with nodding and smiling.

But I wholeheartedly agree with the member of the audience that kept shouting “Jævla konge!” (“Fucking king” – believe it or not, a compliment in Norwegian) Gåte is a treat to see live, and I will more than happily visit another concert as soon as possible.

The light show had a hard time in the battle against the slowly setting sun, and definitely lost, but nobody cared about that when the band gave “Sjåaren” (the seer) as their one and only encore.

Setlist
01. Fredlysning
02. Bendik og Årolilja
03. Rike Rodenigår
04. Snåle mi jente
05. Kjærleik
06. Liti
07. Knut Liten
08. Ola I
09. Du som er ung
10. Jomfruva Ingebjør
11. Margit Hjukse
12. Sjå attende
---------
13. Sjåaren

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 5 (not in total score)
Total: 8 (8.2)


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