{"id":1495,"date":"2012-11-23T16:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T16:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=1495"},"modified":"2014-08-22T18:39:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T18:39:30","slug":"tir-na-noir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/tir-na-noir\/","title":{"rendered":"Tir n\u2019a Noir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you looking for Norwegian music? A band I\u2019d recommend to anyone is\u00a0Vamp<\/strong>. Based in the west coast city of Haugesund, they\u2019ve been famous for their Irish-inspired folk rock since the 1990\u2019ies. They\u2019re a staple at televised festivals, and have won an armful of the prestigious\u00a0spellemann<\/strong>\u00a0(\u201dfiddler\u201d) awards.<\/p>\n

The band was founded by Torbj\u00f8rn \u00d8kland and vocalist \u00d8yvind Staveland, and has had many different musicians as members.\u00a0Fellesnevneren<\/strong>\u00a0(the common denominator, the thing they have in common) for all these people has always been that they are extremely gifted\u00a0musikanter<\/strong>\u00a0(musicians). Watching them live is amazing, they play any instrument you can imagine! In addition to singing, \u00d8yvind plays\u00a0fiolin<\/strong>\u00a0(violin),\u00a0bratsj<\/strong>\u00a0(viola),\u00a0trekkspill\u00a0<\/strong>(accordion) and\u00a0fl\u00f8yter<\/strong>\u00a0(flutes \u2013 takk, Wikipedia<\/a>!) Among all the instruments they use, I\u2019d say it\u2019s the \u201dfolksy\u201d stuff like violins and accordions that really make people wanna dance at their shows.<\/p>\n

If you understand Norwegian, the gift of listening to Vamp becomes even greater. Most of their texts are written by Kolbein Falkeid, who\u2019s published many\u00a0diktsamlinger<\/strong>\u00a0(collections of poetry) and is an outstanding poet. His lyrics are in the local Haugesund dialect. If you understand standard\u00a0bokm\u00e5l\u00a0<\/strong>Norwegian, the texts are not that hard to understand. The most noticeable differences are the word for \u2019I\u2019,\u00a0eg<\/strong>, and some slightly different endings (like\u00a0hestar<\/strong>\u00a0instead of\u00a0hester<\/strong>\u00a0for \u2019horses\u2019).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the\u00a0refreng<\/strong>\u00a0(refrain) of one of Vamp\u2019s greatest hits,\u00a0Tir n\u2019a Noir<\/strong>\u00a0(the title\u2019s Celtic and refers to a myth about a distant land in the west):<\/p>\n