If it wasn't for the digital synthesizers, you could imagine yourself sitting by a campfire deep in a Norwegian forest, a few hundred years before the first Christian missionaries showed up. Hypnotic and primitive, Fra en Vugge i Fjellet [From a Cradle in the Mountains] is no metal album, but any afficionados of Viking or atmospheric black metal will quickly recognize an immersive musical style of which folk metal bands' most subtle creations are but cartoons.

This requires attentive listening, not an easy thing when the band's gentle neofolk melodies -- a scraping fiddle, birch percussion instruments, strummed acoustic guitars, and soft harps. Clean electric guitars and synths aren't forgotten, though they too are gentle, meandering items that have no aggression to them. What really gives Fedrespor's sound the authentic touch, though, are the choruses. From the rough, campfire-style chorus of the title track to the lone pagan wail of Hvil ditt Hjerte, the vocals are what puts palpable emotion into the the tracks, making what would ordinarily be background music into an immersive experience.

The attitude of the music is that of solemn stillness, but like many Nordvis albums, there's a dark undercurrent beneath all the quiet introspection; this is a Viking forest we are entering, not a New Age hippie commune. Slipp menneske Til's choral harmonies are pretty, but they are mingled with grim spoken-word pronouncements and the occasional anguished shriek. The tracks featuring more of the modern instruments also use more modern melodies, such as the guitar duet of Lengselens Morgenrøde.

It's impossible to ascertain the historical authenticity of the folk elements of Fra en Vugge i Fjellet, but then, that was never the point in the first place. An interesting blend of the old with the new, this is an album that creates a compelling musical Norse history that is all its own.