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Kronstad 23 — Sommermørket
(El Paraiso EPR082, 2025, LP / CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-12-06

Sommermørket Cover art

The title translates roughly to “The Summer Darkness.” Kronstad 23 is a band that has been together as such only a couple of years (formed in 2023), but the members are old friends who have played together in various configurations for a decade or more. There are six players listed on the album cover, but Håvar Skaugen and Inge Breistein both play saxes (on completely different tracks), and three of the seven tracks feature no saxes at all. That leaves the core band as a quartet of bassist Eirik Rømcke, keyboardist Øyvind Vie Berg (Fender Rhodes, piano, organ, and Moog), guitarist/sitarist Alexsander Tøsdal Tveit, and drummer Hans Christian Dalgaard, likely the same four that are on the photo on our artist page; El Paraiso’s supporting document states that the record was recorded in three different sessions between 2024 and 2025, one session with one saxophonist, another session with a different sax player, and a third session with neither. The sounds the band present are potent and powerful, sometimes gentle and other times revved up, always seeming a bit like freewheeling, well-rehearsed improvisations. Tveit’s swirling guitars on tracks like “Helgen” are particularly effected and overt examples of the finest psychedelic rock, but there’s definitely a jazz element in their music that can be heard at various times throughout the set, for exaple on the title track where a distinct melodic semblance is ushered in slowly over a period of several minutes with electric piano over a walking bass line, event ually the guitar steps in with the drums and an ongoing groove is set forth that ends up supporting a powerful sax solo by Breistein. The opener “Dølgsma” moves in slowly with gobs of psychedelic guitar effects in tow until mid way through its seven-minute run, everything stops and it bursts into full-on psychedelic rockin’ glory, with a bari sax solo by Skaugen that takes the piece home. “Astralreiser” may remind a listener of some of the gentler instrumental parts of Electric Ladyland, and while there is no sax on this number, Tveit playing his effected guitar much in the same way as a sax, slowly flowing in and out of a distinctly Doors-like groove. Closing track “Sjelfred” is where both organ and sitar make their first appearance, albeit in a very gentle and spacy way, like the soundtrack to a long night of dreaming. This is Kronstad 23’s second album, and it certainly bodes well for a bright future.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Kronstad 23

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