Two leading voices in dark and frostbitten Scandinavian music join forces for a summer tour that will start at ALICE. Both Afsky (DK) and Grift (SE) are masters of creating haunting music mixing black metal and folk music.

Afsky, is Ole Luk’s (also frontman in Solbrud) solo project, which is based on traditional black metal, mixed with elements of folk and doom as well as a mixture of wildness and melancholy. The project saw the light of day in 2015. Earlier this year Afsky released the album “Ofte jeg drømmer mig død”. An album based on a selection of old Danish poems and texts by artists such as H.C. Andersen, Jeppe Aakjær and Emil Aarestrup. The album received excellent reviews in Denmark as well as internationally.

Grift is the name of the Swedish artist and multi-instrumentalist Erik Gärdefors. Grift’s ambition is to capture the feeling of desolation and existential questions, and express this through music, lyrics and images. He has released several albums, with the haunting “Budet” (2020) as the most recent one. With a foundation in both desolate folk and melancholic harsh metal, “Budet” employs traditional instruments such as the lonely chords of a reed organ and exquisite violins, the latter courtesy of Georg Börner (ColdWorld, Sangre de Muerdago.) Erik Gärdefors’s vehement, bordering on desperate, vocal outbursts convey the introspective and thoughtful lyrics in a most gripping manner, and the thick rural atmosphere is at the same time both nostalgic, anguish-filled and redeeming.