Name: Kronstad 23
Members: Øyvind Arnodd Vie Berg (keys), Alexander Tøsdal Tveit (guitar, sitar), Eirik Rømcke (bass) Hans Christian Dalgaard (drums, percussion)
Nationality: Norwegian
Current release: Kronstad 23's new album Dødehavet is out via Batov.  

If you enjoyed this Kronstad 23 interview and would like to know more about the band and their music, visit them on Instagram, and bandcamp. 



When it comes to experiencing the sensation of “energy” as as a listener, which albums, performances, and artists come to mind?

Alex: Allman Brothers' Live at Filmore East, John Coltrane's A love supreme. The Grateful Dead's "That’s it for the other one."



There can be many different kinds of energy in art – soft, harsh, healing, aggressive, uplifting and many more. Which do you tend to feel drawn to most?

All: The spiritual energy of a collective performing as one unit, all instruments melting together like the fingers on a hands guitarists

I have had a hard time explaining that listening to death metal calms me down. When you listen to a song with a particular energy, does it tend to fill you with the same energy – or are there “paradoxical” effects?

An intense blend of improvisational energy can be calming like the eye of a storm.

When it comes to experiencing the sensation of “energy” as as a creator, how would you describe the physical sensation of experiencing this energy?

It is as if the song and voice create a plane where chaos and disorder are balanced into one focused beam of pure energy that can be felt in the spine, radiating out through your legs and arms

When it comes to composing / songwriting, are you finding that spontaneity and just a few takes tend to capture energy best? Or does honing a piece bring you closer to that goal?

We always work with one or two takes - it is rare that a piece requires more than two takes to be captured

How much of the energy of your own music, would you say, is already part of the composition, how much of it is the result of the recording process?

Most of the energy comes about in the take and collective performance.

But the energy potential needs to be clearly present already in the composition so that we can feel it immediately once we have set the groove - otherwise its not working

For your current release, Dødehavet, what kind of energy were you looking for?

Definitely always the collective energy - those tracks that were scrapped did not have that collective feel and performance.

How do you capture the energy you want in the studio?

We capture it by being unprepared and having little time - sometimes as little as one hour per track for learning, testing and performing it.

What role do factors like volume, effects like distortion, amplification, and production in general for in terms of creating the energy you want?

The most important part is that the recording is set up so that we can capture that energy as directly as possible but still with the possibility of adding overdubs and effects for the details that create the little extra

In terms of energy, what changes when you're performing live on stage, with an audience present, compared to the recording stage?

Since we live far apart and rarely meet, we never performed live before, but in 2027 that is likely to change.

How does the presence of the audience and your interaction with it change  the energy of the music and how would you describe the creative interaction with listeners during a gig?

We hope to find out in 2027!