Renowned fiddle player Olav L Mjelva has created a unique project, Afargang, which blends nordic folk, progressive and black metal, while using the Hardanger Fiddle to create soundscapes. We sat down with Olav for a chat about the record, “Andvake”, which means “Awakened Soul” in Old Norse and has been nominated for a Spellemann. (Lykke til fra oss, Olav!)
Text: Anne-Marie Forker
The title of your new album “Andvake” means “Awakened Soul” in Old Norse, and it feels like that when you listen to it, like you’re being presented with something new, a sort of awakening. It’s a fascinating blend of black metal with folk. How did you come up with this idea and form Afargang?
It’s kind of a long process. Because I’ve always been listening to metal and rock. Not really black metal, but then I started playing with Wardruna. That’s at least 10 years ago, and I did shows with them and then Einar asked me to join them for the Skuggsjå album, with Wardruna and Enslaved. And that was really inspiring. I think that blend of that more Nordic Viking sound with the metal was a perfect blend. So, I thought that maybe someday I will try to do something like this, but I didn’t have any ideas about where to begin or who to work with. So, I just left it for many years. And then, I think it must have been during the Pandemic that I just thought – Now I have time, I could try it, start a little bit on this. So, I did! And so, I went to friend who has a studio in Hamar – he’s a really good guitarist – and then that was the beginning. I just made one song that was the first single that came out in 2022, just as a test. But I realised that it wasn’t the perfect way to go and I needed to work a bit more with the idea and I really needed to meet the right people to work with. Then I put it away for another couple of years. And then in January and February last year, I saw that I had a lot of free time in my calendar, so, I just thought – Ah! Just Go for it! And so I contacted Stian Kårstad first. He’s one of my favourite guitar players. You know him?
I’ve heard the name, isn’t he a producer as well?
Yeah, he plays with Trelldom and he used to play with Gorgoroth and God Seed and Djerv. So, I was really starstruck. But then I sent him a message to ask first, if he wanted to be the producer for the album. He said that we should have a talk so I phoned him. He was really nice and positive and said that he was getting more interested in folk music, and he also said that he thought it would be much more fun to play on the album than just producing it.
That’s a good vote of confidence. He wanted to play as well.
Yeah, it was amazing. So that was like putting fuel on the fire, because I think we’re quite similar that when we start something, we just want to get it done. I sent him all my sketches and ideas during the Spring. And it was quite a quick process. I had a lot of things ready with the guitars and fiddles, but we sent it back and forth, and in the end, we were ready to record drums already in April, and recorded the guitars in June and also the vocals. And I recorded most of my fiddles here in my studio. So, a fun process!
I’m really surprised that you’ve not done the main vocals on anything before.
I’ve always liked singing. But the growling, I do some of it on the album but that was something I’ve never done before. So, I’m glad I had some time in my studio. But the growling for the last single, “Leva og Døy”, I got a friend in called Haldor Bromstad. He is a really good at that stuff. My intention is to work on that myself and to be able to do it properly, quite soon.
You don’t just play a melody, you create soundscapes as well. It feels like you’re pushing the boundaries with what’s possible with that instrument. What appealed to you about the fiddle in the first place?
I started playing the fiddle when I was six! But then I started with a normal violin, so I started playing Hardanger fiddle when I was twenty. And I just loved the sound of it, even before I started playing it. But I don’t live in the Hardanger fiddle area, but my mum is from Hallingdal which is a stronger Hardanger fiddle area. So I had a kind of a reason to take it up. The last years, it’s become more and more Hardanger fiddle and I also to a lot of recordings for other musicians and for TV and games in my studio and then it’s always the Hardanger fiddle. So, it’s definitely something about that sound and that instrument that is very appealing, and it works much better in a project like this, I think, than the violin because it just sounds more haunting and has a more Nordic sound that is quite hard to describe, a more dreamy, atmospheric sound.
There’s a part in “Kvile”, where the fiddle plays a repetitive motif all by itself and then the music slowly builds around it to a crescendo, and then a guitar solo comes in. The transition is absolutely perfect. I was wondering, when you’re writing the songs and the motifs, do you tend to use the guitar or the fiddle?
For this project, for Afargang, I think most of it has come out of guitar, usually starting with some ideas about some guitar riffs. And then I start building it from there. And that first idea of the riff could be anywhere in the song. I just needed something to build the song out from. And then you think about what kind of world you want this song to be in, because a guitar riff can also be used in so many ways, different tempos, and different energies. So, I really enjoy working in the studio and making music like that, making a song out of nothing.
What is it about black metal that attracts you to it?
For me, I think it’s mostly about the energy in it. It’s also when I have played solo Hardanger fiddle, for traditional music, it’s also a similar energy in that, but it sounds quite different to black metal. But it’s something about that aggression and the energy in the music and that you are able to get it out, in a way.
Cathartic perhaps?
Yeah, but also I like the dark atmospheric side of it.
You’ve done that really well on this album, but there’s a few lighter elements and one of them is the track “Leika”. After the intensity of the title track, that was really well placed. Was that hard to put the tracks in order?
Yeah, it was very hard and I had the totally different order in my head, but By Norse wanted to start with “Mot Verda”. But I wanted to have far out on the album. But I realised that it’s probably a really good opening song because it had a lot of the elements that you will hear on the coming songs on the album. It has the folk intro and the black metal. So, it was a very good choice, but then I had to rearrange the order completely. It was very hard, actually, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.
The closing track “Kom Ned”, why did you choose that to close with?
For me, it was quite obvious, I think. For me, it’s the most atmospheric song on the album, and it’s very sad in the way. Well, you can make it sad, if you want it to be, but for me, it’s the song that makes me think the most about life and my inner wellness.
What was the most challenging song to finish and why?
Well, “Mot Verda” and the one called “I di Eining”, those two tracks were leftovers from the first attempts to start Afargang at the same time as we recorded the first single, “Heim”. And we tried recording both of those tracks, but it didn’t work. So, in the end Stian had to rework them, and it was difficult because I had all these ideas in my head about how it should be, but it didn’t work. But I got a lot of good input from Stian and it worked out in the end. We took a lot of time on that, we had to remove some parts and add some parts, bring some g guitars and add some other guitars.
What did Stan bring to the sound?
He definitely brought his black metal sound. And he is an expert at that genre. He really wanted me to get out what I wanted, and we also agreed about everything. So, it wasn’t like a clinch! [laughs] He definitely brought his dark cold – more like static – dark black metal. Also, when they were recording drums, he told Jon Even [Schärer], “Don’t play so lively, be like a cold machine.”
Interesting. I wanted to ask you about how you came to work with Gåte’s drummer.
His sister lives in the same town as me, and we have played together. I played on her last album and we made that album together. When we started playing live, she asked Jon Even to join her for the concert. So, that was the first time we played together. And then, of course I already knew really well who he was and we knew each other a little bit from before. It’s like, I didn’t have a good self-esteem about this project. So I was not expecting people to say “yes”, when I asked them to join. But, both Stian and Jon Even were very positive from the beginning, which was very surprising to me because I didn’t know if I had something or if it was something that could be something. So, I’m really happy that I got them to join me.
Do you have any plans to play this live?
Yes. I really want to play live. It’s not super easy to play it live these days, because it will take a lot of money and time to get it out on the road, because we need time to rehearse when need time for a proper production. And when it goes live, I really wanted it to be something special. It has to be a good performance, of course, but it has to be really well produced, with the lighting and sound and all the other elements that come into it. It will definitely take a lot of money and that is, right now, what is holding it back in a way. But I’m meeting with By Norse next week to see If we can come up with some good ideas. It will be out live, I hope, in the next year.
(Interview originally published in NRM 2026 #2)
