Emerging from Norway’s expansive post-rock landscape, SPURV announce their fourth album, “Kelolågen”, set for release on February 5, 2027 via Pelagic Records. Alongside the announcement, the six-piece unveils the album’s first single, “Kelogadd”, a dark, noisy post-punk track driven by bass and electronic percussion, with breathy vocals and a heavily processed field recording of a waterfall in an old-growth forest in northern Norway.
“Kelogadd” is out now on all major streaming platforms – listen HERE
Across fifteen years, SPURV have developed a distinctive sound drawing from classical composition, folk, post-punk, noise, electronic music and the heavier edges of metal. Through interlocking guitars, dynamic percussion, orchestral arrangements and carefully layered textures, the band explores music as a means of accessing our relationship with nature.
The album’s title refers to a phenomenon that has no direct English equivalent. A kelolåg is a pine that has stood for centuries, died on its feet, twisted silver-grey and finally fallen, to spend hundreds more years becoming soil. Most Norwegians have never needed the word either, as old-growth forest makes up only around 1% of Norway’s forest. On their fourth album, SPURV give the fallen tree a voice – and, for the first time, a singer. Founder Gustav Jørgen Pedersen, who partly started the band so he would never have to sing in one, now does.
Kelo is a loanword from Sámi for these dry, barkless trees; låg means something that has fallen and lies on the ground. “Language practices sustain words that are meaningful for a language community,” says Gustav Jørgen Pedersen. “Without old-growth forests, there is no need for a term like kelolåg.“
Tracklist:
01. Visne til liv
02. Soldyrker
03. Kelogadd
04. Navnløs
05. Sammenkveilingen
06. Uendelig uendelig
Following the exploration of peatlands on “Myra” (2018) and glaciers on “Brefjære” (2023), SPURV now turn their attention to the old-growth forest. The album’s six tracks follow the life cycle of a kelo tree, from its growth towards the light to its eventual fall and slow return to the soil. The concept first came to Pedersen when he encountered kelo trees in Muddus National Park in northern Sweden, sparking a search for them across the North.
Musically, “Kelolågen” is SPURV’s most concise record to date, trading lengthy build-ups and preludes for greater density and immediacy while retaining the band’s signature melodies and orchestral arrangements. It also marks a new chapter, with two of the main tracks featuring vocals. “In a way, I started the band so I wouldn’t have to sing in a band,” says Pedersen. “Recording the vocals was a big step but turned out to be surprisingly fulfilling.”
With more members contributing to the songwriting and arrangements than ever before, “Kelolågen” expands SPURV’s sonic palette. Guitarist Eirik Ørevik Aadland co-wrote large parts of the album, including much of its prog-tinged riffing, while trombonist Simen Eifring penned the string arrangements. The result is the band’s most varied record yet, with more layers, colours and even a pump organ woven into its sound.
Rather than portraying the forest as a lost paradise, “Kelolågen” celebrates its complexity and vitality, ending in defiance rather than despair. “People need to know about the old-growth forest and about kelo trees,” says Pedersen, “and we must stop destroying them.” For SPURV, the forest also represents a place to imagine alternative ways of organising society.
The album was recorded and mixed by Jørgen Smådal Larsen at Paradiso Studio in Oslo, capturing a raw, dense and organic sound. Mastering was handled by Cult of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg, with cover art by Sten Ove Toft and photography by Birte Magnussen.
“Kelolågen” will be coming out on February 5 via Pelagic Records and is available for pre-order HERE
Line-up:
Gustav Jørgen Pedersen: vocals, guitars, pump organ, glockenspiel, field recordings
Eirik Ørevik Aadland: guitars, glockenspiel, synths
Herman Otterlei: guitars
Hans-Jakob Jeremiassen: bass
Simon Ljung: drums
Simen Eifring: trombone
Brage Sæbø: violin
Emilie Haagenrud: violin
Einar Bauge: viola
Marek Bieńkuński: cello
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/spurvband/
https://www.facebook.com/Spurvinnen/
https://spurv.bandcamp.com
https://pelagic-records.com/artist/spurv/
