Sturle Dagsland is a highly acclaimed genre-bending artist from Norway. With a wild and unique performance he captivates the audience and takes the listeners on an adventurous journey. Together with his brother Sjur they have toured extensively at festivals all across the world, from Shanghai to New York, Greenland and all the way to the Source of the Nile in Africa. The two brothers conjure an expressive ever-changing soundscape with a distinctive sonic palette and an uncompromising whirlwind of sound. Dominated by Sturle’s astonishing voice their sound evolves from the ethereal and beautiful to wild and abrasive in a matter of seconds.
His second album Dreams and Conjurations to be released on October 10, 2025. Having released his first heavy experimental single,“Galdring,” today Sturle releases a more ambient electronic and avant garde, “Whispering Forest, Echoing Mountains.”
“Whispering Forest, Echoing Mountains” is presenting the listeners for both the melancholic and playful side of Dagsland’s songwriting. Throughout the song Sturle utilizes his own Norwegian folk inspired singing technique, a particular style associated with being out in the mountains looking over and caring for the goats and cattle. The style may also be associated with the sort of singing the joyous animal characters of the Norwegian fairy tales would be chanting while hiking through the woods on an adventure.
Sturle explains:“The first ideas of the song came about during a late night walk through the Hutongs of Beijing. The people living there were very welcoming and after a while me and my brother were invited into the home of an old half-blind man that showed us around. He had a cozy home and while his relatives were preparing for supper he opened a big case in the living room. Inside the case was this old and dusty Guzheng, which is a traditional Chinese harp. The man put it on his lap and slowly strung a chord while reciting a riddle about a dream he had about the Norwegian mountains and the magical creatures he believed lived in our forest. All of a sudden he stopped playing and said: “Now it is your turn”. We started playing and improvising and after a while we all ended up playing together until the end of the night. As a direct result of the jam we engaged in the first ideas of the song was created… A couple of years later we came across some recordings from that night and continued pursuing the ideas of that song in our family´s cabin in the mountains. In a way, I also feel this is our tree climbing song. To me it feels like being in the forest meeting friendly squirrels and bullfinch birds while hanging upside down from a tree branch.”
Expect the unexpected and lean into a musical odyssey that conjures sounds of the netherworlds and intertwines old primordial knowledge with avant-garde pop music, screaming metal, folk music and immersive electronic soundscapes; From the beautiful and haunting ambient landscapes of “Windharp,” the Norwegian folk dance inspired track “Hallingen,”the self-collected ghost stories which inspired “Kwaidan,” the genuine joyfulness of “Whispering Forest, Echoing Mountains” and “The Ritual”- a song inspired by a raw shamanistic ritual that Sturle once found himself engaged in.
Armed with a brigade of instruments the two multi-instrumentalists are utilizing a wide array of different melodic instruments; including Nordic folk instruments like Nyckelharpa and goat horns, to Chinese Guzheng, West-African Kora, Marxophone, Fula flute, Hungarian Cimbalom, Waterphone and dozens of different folk instruments that they have gathered during their travels. The soundscape is pushed further blending them with distorted imperfect sounds, synthesizers and custom made electronics. Although mostly recorded in their hometown of Stavanger, where the brothers have their studio, they put together different segments of the album in different locations across the world absorbing the various landscapes to inspire the record; these ranged from remote cabins in the Norwegian mountaintops to abandoned industrial estates, retired Soviet Navy ships in Eastern Europe, Villages in Uganda and in a desolated clocktower during a snowstorm on the Faroe Islands. These untraditional and often enchanting recording
environments breathe into the album’s rich tapestry . The duo’s artistic creations encompass several genres; both the tranquil and intimate “Drifter” as well as the shamanistic performance of “Galdring,” a vehement musical expression fueled by primal screams, ceremonial Sámi drums, wooden logs, bones, harps and distant cow horns before segueing into an intense blend of world music.
Early 2021 Sturle Dagsland released their first full-length album. Their debut won one of the prestigious Edvard Awards, honoring the best Norwegian albums of the year. Their sophomore album demonstrates the potent symbiosis of the two brothers, threading intricate melodies and sounds through their Norwegian roots, incorporating inspiration of both their indigenous ancestry, primal expressions, dreams, rituals, as well as imaginative and futuristic concepts.
Wild, expressive, and truly idiosyncratic, the long-awaited sophomore album by one of Norway’s most innovative and experimental talents will be released on October 10, 2025.
Connect with Sturle Dagsland:
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