children's music for adults
Spöket i köket has distinguished itself as a new elemental force on the Scandinavian folk music scene. A Swedish/Danish/Belgian folk fusion big band with a rarely seen party potential that handles both delicate ballads and polskas as well as face slapping reels and schottisches. Music from Nordic and Canadian folk traditions and freshly written tunes in traditional style, all arranged for Spökets intrepid instrumentation.
A lot has been said about Spöket; gangstafolk, absolute orchestra, children’s music for grownups, a love child between reckless umpa-bumpa and disco in the barn, etc.
The band has made countless gigs all over Scandinavia and Europe, both at the big folk festivals and pubs, nightclubs and in gardens, in cafés and churches. No breed of audience has yet experienced Spöket and sat still.
Spöket is simply a catastrophony of moonshine folk music in big band format. It is as feral as it is soothing, as violent as it is comforting. It is ten musicians playing twenty instruments, singing in four languages, the firmly planted in traditional Nordic and Canadian music, toes nibbling out into manouche jazz, fusion, heavy metal and a healthy dose of avant garde pop à la Frank Zappa.
A lounge/rave folkband, the only one of its kind.
who is playing?
Nisse Blomster
Guitar, mandolin, banjo, vocals, podorythmie
Signe Kierkgaard Schmidt
Violin
Mads Kjøller Henningsen
Flutes, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, jaw harp
Lies Hendrix
Melodeon
Sebastian Petersson
Trombone
Albin Lagg
Trumpet, flugelhorn
Erik Larsson
Tenor saxophone, clarinet
Henrik Büller
Baritone saxophone, alto saxophone
Erik Bengtsson
Bass
Emma Engström
Piano, organ
discography
2017 Den nya spisen
2019 Château du Garage
2022 Kurbits & Flames
Nominated for Newcomer of the year at Folk- & Världsmusikgalan 2017.
Nominated for Album of the year and Composer of the year (Nisse Blomster) at DMA Folk Awards 2019 for the album Château du Garage.
Nominated for Folk music of the year at Manifestgalan 2023 for the album Kurbits & Flames.
Grammy nominated for Folk music of the year at Grammisgalan 2023 for the album Kurbits & Flames.
Thanks to our former band members!
Thor Ahlgren, Joel Persson Haag, Daniel Gahrton, Troels Strange Lorenzen, Ella Wennerberg, Clara Tesch and Linnea Aall Campbell.
background
The idea of a big folk band with equal amounts of traditional Nordic folk tunes, a hot horn section, and archaic drone-and-melody, formed in the head of composer/bandleader Nisse Blomster in 2012. At the time, he studied mandolin at Skurups folkhögskola in the south of Sweden.
The first experimental concert came to be in the first years exam concert, in the spring of 2013. The band consisted of twelve people, and the song 'Med snön kommer livsglädjen tillbaka', which to this day is in the bands repertoire, was the final number.
A year went by, and during 2014, Nisse and his classmate, flute player Mads Kjøller Henningsen, who both shared a great love for the music of Québec, bonded heavily over the music of La Bottine Souriante. For that years exam concert, Mads invited Nisse to write horn arrangements for a La Bottine set of tunes.
A spark then ignited, as the idea of a folk big band merging the music traditions of the Nordics and French Canada was in their grasp. A band consisting of members from very different backgrounds, such as jazz, classical, and traditional music, was put together and began to experiment with repertoire written and arranged by Nisse. History does not tell where the name 'Spöket i köket' comes from, but it can be revealed that there surely exists one or two greater or lesser truths and better or worse stories about it.
Skurup was replaced by Gothenburg and the Academy of Music and Drama and a few band members were replaced on the road. In 2016 Spöket i Köket went on their first ever summer tour, consisting of twenty concerts in four weeks, with Nisse behind the wheel of the most amazing Scania-Vabis bus from the sixties. From first thinking “this god damn ten-piece crossover band is completely doomed from an economic perspective - let’s just enjoy ourselves for the fun of it”, this project actually started feeling kind of possible. The amount of concerts grew and the style has been developed into a solid and coherent sound. Today Spöket i köket has about one hundred concerts in the bag, has been on yet another Scania bus tour and has released three albums. Hopefully there will be a hundred more in the future and even more chaotic, exciting, romantic and quick-witted folk music.
Let's hope we see you at our concerts!
