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Feb 05, 2015 Angelica’s Elegy By Laura Studarus Photography by Laura Studarus

How to tell you’re at a successful music festival—check your attitude on the last day. Do you feel a creeping sense of nostalgia as you page through your instagram feed? A slight sense of sorrow at the realization that you’ll soon be saying goodbye to your friends, old and new? A feeling that, despite physical aches, you could easily go another few days? Yes. Yes. And YES. Congratulations Trondheim Calling, you win.

But before anyone could give in to post festival exhaustion, there was still one more day of music ahead of us. (And copious amounts of hotel breakfast to help us along.) Highlights of the night included Angelica’s Elegy, Frøkedal, and Moddi.

If Angelica’s Elegy were from Brooklyn, they probably would have been labeled the next (insert current buzz band) by now. For now, their psych pop remains Trondheim’s not-so-little secret. With only one album under their belts (2013’s Gold Celeste) the duo already plays like pros, their set full of delicate guitar work, falsetto vocals, and—of course—enough reverb to drown every member of Tame Impala

Anne Lise Frøkedal has had several brushes with stateside indie notoriety, including work as a musical guest on Chad Valley track, “Fathering/Mothering.” (She also did a stint as the frontwoman for Harry’s Gym.) But it was clear from her set on Saturday night that she was meant to be a solo artist. With her current project, Frøkedal and Family her soft voice, able to convey both sweetness and pain in a single phrase, is put center stage. I said it back in August when I saw her at Øya, and I’ll say it again here—she is an acoustic folk heartbreaker that should be exported, ASAP.

And then there was Moddi. I’ll be honest—I’ve been burned by folk troubadours before. No matter how good of a musician you are, you have to be part stand up comic and/or be willing to wear your heart on your sleeve in order to command a stage. Clad in an oversized white shirt, long blond hair framing his face, Moddi (full name: Pål Moddi Knutsen) managed to do all this with a boy next-door charm not unlike Sondre Lerche or Jens Lekman. Okay, so some of the non-musical aspects of his set might have been lost on me. (All his banter was in Norwegian.) But his lush music, a mix of Norwegian and English, was not. Alongside his cellist, the artist spun tales of life in Northern Norway, filled with ocean and architecture imagery. He even sang an a capella sea shanty about working as a barista, and managed to make the tune sound tragic rather than cutesy. I got the feeling I wasn’t the only new fan he made in the church where he performed that evening.

So how do you sign off after a three-day crash course in Norwegian music? First, you state the obvious—the festival was a lot of fun. Next, you offer them advice for next year. (I’m hard pressed to think of something here. Clear the ice off the sidewalks? Is that even a thing that can be done? Yup, still a Californian.) Then finally, you say thank you from the bottom of your heart. That bit isn’t hard. From seeing new bands, to meeting new people, to just being in Norway, it was an incredible ride. May your event flourish, and your artists find their way over to the U.S., so I can claim the bragging rights of having seen them first.

Tusen Takk!

Catch up with day one of our Trondheim adventure here.

Catch up with day two of our Trondheim adventure here.

Check out photos of Angelica’s Elegy, Frøkedal, Moddi, and Conor Patrick & The Shooting Tsar Orchestra here.

Check out Angelica’s Elegy’s mixtape here.

(www.facebook.com/trondheimcalling)

(www.facebook.com/Angelicaselegy)

(www.facebook.com/frokedalmusic)

(www.facebook.com/moddimusikk)