Skjæbnen consists of Ragnhild Risnes (vocals and guitar), Mona Krogstad (saxophone), Åsmund Mattias Smidt (drums) and Tarald Kongshaug (bass). At Rindal Wooden Ski festival they will also be accompanied by Ragna Rian (fiddle).

The band draws inspiration from Norwegian songs, folk music and performing arts. Curious about the ugly sides of people, they dig up uncut gems from the darkest corners of folklore. They tell stories from all times and weave together perspectives from then and now.

The audience should be moved, and they should be moved.

Some lyrics are taken from tradition, others are self-composed with eternally relevant themes and a humorous edge. Peasant romance in the traditional Trønde language and life advice from Kvinneguiden.no may occur.

Skjæbnen is a cheeky and popular fusion of tradition and modernity.

The band introduces themselves as follows:
Perhaps it is ‘fate’ – an invisible force that governs the development of the world and human life, and over which we have no control; threads of life that are spun and woven together with those of others in a complex interaction – society.

The world has changed a lot, and continues to do so – at an ever-faster pace, it seems. Yet there are timeless experiences that people have shared throughout time: birth and death, love and loneliness, partying and fun, toil and seriousness. These are universal experiences, but they are experienced in different ways depending on time and society. There are aspects of human life that are often taboo, even though they are shared by everyone – across class, geography and generations.

It is these eternal experiences that Skjæbnen explores in our music, by searching the cultural heritage for the crooked, the ugly, the queer and the shameful. And yes, we find.

With communication and musical play at the center, we use theatrical means to take the audience into the world of Fate. Here we get up close to human destinies throughout the ages. The lyrics touch on all aspects of our human community, from joy to sorrow, from sobriety to senseless intoxication, from deepest seriousness to tainted and uninhibited indecency. To achieve this, we have drawn inspiration from poets such as Dorothe Engelbrektsdatter (When you, O Lord, chastise me), Jakob Sande (After a Rangle) and Petter Dass (Double Deylighet).

Our repertoire is a mixture of self-composed songs, folk music and settings by Norwegian poets, which bind together the musicians' backgrounds in jazz, folk music and theater in an unpolished, playful and rocking sound. Central to the music are the good moments and the good atmosphere, where old tradition meets the joy of artistic exploration in an open and close landscape – both musically and interpersonally.