Womex:

The Great Nordic NightJohan Sara Jr.Unni Løvlid

Showcase Scotland:

Spotlight on Norway

#2 2009Listen to Norway

Standing on the shoulders of giants 3

The Great Nordic Night/Band 4

Johan Sara Jr. Orvoš: the mountain of outlook 6

Unni Løvlid: rooted explorations 8

Showcase Scotland 12

Valkyrien Allstars 13

Majorstuen 14

Unni Boksasp Ensemble 15

Skáidi 16

Synnøve S. Bjørset 17

Gjermund Larsen Trio 18

Music Information Centre Norway 20

Editor: Tomas Lauvland PettersenText: Christian Lysvåg and Tomas Lauvland PettersenDesign: MIC NorwayCover: Johan Sara Jr. Photo Knut Åserud

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Contemporary Norwegian folk music is alive and kicking. Today’s performers stand on the shoulders of giants as they launch them-selves into a daredevil free-fall.

With a heartfelt respect for traditions, they bring with them their own stories into the music; today’s beats are welded with the past; MTV meets the traditional ‘bunad’ costume, age-old story-telling traditions meet Twitter. Stories are rediscovered, re-told, expanded and adapted, but what it really boils down to is that close encounter; the direct, non-proc-essed and pure sound from the timbre-rich instruments delivered to the audience via the hands of the performer. It’s still a matter of travelling - a journey with your own story where the focus is on passing on the traditions.

The basis of these stories is local, even hyper-local. But local turns into global as we live the same stories and deal with the same is-sues; love, grief, content, shame and joy. Whether if its fado, klezmer, blues, mariachi or joik – the sounds belong to us all and resonates regardless of its form, colour or language. The Music Information Centre Norway Womex Magazine features a close encounter with some of today’s most vibrant storytellers: Unni Løvlid, Johan Sara Jr, Annbjørg Lien, Ragnhild Furebotten, Frikar, Gjermund Larsen Trio, Unni Boksasp Ensemble, Synnøve S. Bjørset, Majorstuen, Valkyrien Allstars and Skaidi. They all represent their very own, local contributions to the global sound.

Martin RevheimDirector MIC Norway

www.mic.no

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The Great Nordic Night/Band

With the arrival of Womex in Copenhagen, one has decided to make the opening concert a show of Nordic folk-musical élan. Created and directed by the Danish fiddler Harald Haugaard, The Great Nordic Night features an all-star ensemble comprised of some of the leading traditional per-formers form Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, The Sámi areas of the north as well as Greenland. Backed by this Great Nordic Band, a number of outstanding Nordic soloists will give a display of their unique musical art.

In advance of Womex we had a talk with two of the Norwegians travelling to Copenhagen to join ranks with their fellow musicians for The Great Nordic Night.

Ragnhild Furebotten is one of Norway’s foremost young folk musicians. As a member of the vanguard fiddle ensemble Majorstuen she was at the forefront of the revival of Norwegian folk music that commenced a few years back, and which is still growing in strength. Now focusing on her own projects, Furebotten continues to be at the centre of the surge of traditional Norwegian music in its modern day, genre-expanding form, which reinvents the tradition whilst at the same time upholding the age-old musical idioms of rural Norway. Last year saw the debut of her solo project the Ragnhild Furebotten Trio and their record Finally Waltz was hailed as a masterpiece of imaginative folk music. Most recently she has released a record with her old friend and collaborator guitarist Tore Bruvoll. Currently on tour in Ireland with their project Hekla Stålstrenga, Furebotten reveals that she is full of anticipation for The Great Nordic Night in Copenhagen: -I have worked extensively with Harald Haugaard, so naturally we know each other very well musically. I guess that is why he wanted me in this band; he knows my music and what I can contribute. The band is made up of great musicians, many of which I know, so it is a great privilege to

be asked. I am really looking forward to playing with all of them, espe-cially the ones that I have not worked with previously.

The idea behind the Great Nordic Night is that a group of top musicians will be the backing band for a string of soloist from the same Nordic coun-tries, so that together the band and the soloists will deliver an ultimate presentation of Nordic folk music; in terms of instruments, sound, genres and individual skills. However, the musicians in the band are also brilliant soloists, so there are likely to be overlaps.

–We have scheduled a week of preparations for this production, says Furebotten. We will rehearse in Copenhagen and on the island of Fyn, and then meet up with the soloists before the show in Copenhagen.

As for her own projects Furebotten reveals that she is working on a new solo record, which will be featuring a sextet of horns. A celebrated musi-cal innovator, she has been one to explore and expand her North-Norwe-gian folk musical roots. The horns will constitute another new dimension added to the traditional idiom by Furebotten.

–It will be a kind of sequel to Finally Waltz, says Furebotten, with my own songs and my northern tradition as the basis. But I also hope to get back to the trio soon, which is really my dream constellation. And I’m sure there will be another trio record in the not too distant future, but the others will have to stop having so many babies, it´s interrupting our work, laughs Furebotten.

The other Norwegian musician we spoke to in conjunction with The Great Nordic Night is the renowned Hardanger fiddler Annbjørg Lien. After more than twenty years as a profiled folk musician and with a number of records to her name, she is one of the true international stars of tra-ditional Norwegian culture. As one of the selected soloists she will be

Annbjørg Lien. Photo Erik Holand

showcasing the unique instruments she uses and her personal musical signature.

–It is just fantastic that Womex is coming to Copenhagen, exclaims Lien. And the Great Nordic Night is a brilliant idea I think. I know almost everyone, and it is such a great col-lection of musicians.

Lien will be doing two separate solo performances:

-One spot will be just me alone, without any backing, which means that focus will be on the instruments, the sound and details. The other spot I will be doing is together with the Swede Johan Edin on key harp.

This typically Swedish kind of chordophone is unique in sound and technique, and as such it is something of a national instrument; an equivalent to the Annbjørg Lien’s Hardanger Fiddle. However, the Norwegian also masters the key harp, an instru-ment that has been with her for quite some years, she relates. On her soon to be released new record Coming Home the key harp is there, along with the other instruments she calls her own: the Hardanger fid-dle and the standard fiddle. On the record Lien also makes a rare, but convincing vocal perform-ance.

–It is a song that I have inherited form Kristen Bråten Berg, a beautiful tune called Coming Home, says Lien. But it is not because of the song that we chose to give the record that name.

Coming Home is duo record; my husband Ole Bjørn Rasch and I made it in our home studio. The title reflects the place we find ourselves men-

tally.

Six years ago the couple moved to Kristiansand and set up a studio in their home by the sea.

–It felt like settling down, says Lien; like having arrived, with time to pause and feel at home.On the record Ole Bjørn Rasch, who is a professor at the University in Kristiansand, plays the foot bellow organ.

–It is a very organic and slow moving instrument with a lot of phys-ical presence in terms of the actual work and noise of playing

it. Together with my acoustic instruments, it creates a very in-timate and naked atmosphere. In a way this record feels like we’re inviting the listener a lot closer than what I am used to with bigger, more complex productions. It felt very good do-

ing it this way, as a contrast, and as a way of giving a musical expression to the sense of having settled down.

Coming Home will be released in Norway on October 12th and sometime later in the rest of Europe and America. As a folk

musician of international renown, Lien’s records are in de-mand across the world, even when they express the most domestic of airs, or perhaps especially then.

The Great Nordic Night also features the Norwegian dancer Hallgrim Hansegård of Frikar Dance Company.

Womex: Wednesday 28. October at 8 pm Copenhagen Concert Center / Studio 1

Ragnhild Furebotten

Johan Sara Jr.Orvoš:

the mountain of outlook

Sometimes record titles are more than catchy words. For Sámi artist Jo-han Sara Jr. the titles of his records are in themselves important acts of naming, and thus of invoking the named. His latest album is entitled Orvoš, which means the elevation from which everything is visible; the point where one stands to keep an eye on the world.

-The same notion of perspective is true of the music, says Sara. On Orvoš I have delved far back into the Sámi tradition and the Joik on this record is closer to the original expression than much of the Joik that features in modern Sámi crossover music.

For the uninitiated, Joik is the name of the ancient Sámi vocal expression that is so much more than an artistic or cultural expression in the com-monplace sense of the word. In its original form the Joik was functional; it was a way of structuring the world and of naming and sustaining its entities.

-The tradition that I belong to, which is the northern Sámi tradition, is close to this original and functional essence. Aesthetics are not the main concern, and it is far from the pleasantly exotic and perhaps romantic idiom that some associate with Joik. Other traditions are more epic in nature, with more words and more narrative, while my tradition is truthful to the harshness of the arctic conditions. On Orvoš it has been important for me to bring out the truth that the Joik names; that life in the north is often rough and uncomfortable.

On Orvoš this is expressed musically by the juxtaposition of Joik with ele-ments of punk, brute noise and a rough-edged and crunchy sound.

-I wanted the sound to be unpolished and raw, with references to punk. Orvoš also has elements of jazz in it, and rock, but most of all the music is adapted to the functional, truth-bearing Joik.

-On Boska (2003), the previous record in the cycle of which Orvoš is the third, it was the other way around, says Sara. Boska was based more on a western musical syntax, and perhaps more accessible in that way. Orvoš is more complex and less accessible: there is more movement in the rhythm and intricate micro tonality woven into the melodic phrases. The north-Sámi tradition is musically complex, and it is the melodic and rhythmic structures that drive it, not words or narrative. In this way it is close to the shamanistic, trance-inducing essence of Joik, even though I have too much respect for this aspect of our culture to say that my music is shamanistic.

Those of his people who have heard Orvoš, and listened carefully, have given their consent reveals Sara:

-They acknowledge that it is a special project; something that delves deeper than the mere exotic and tries to re-establish the truth-functional nature of the original Joik.

There is a lot of ideology behind Sara’s musical project and the band Johan Sara Jr. Group. As mentioned, Orvoš belongs in a circular and holistic unity with the previous records, as well as those to come. Orvoš bespeaks the mountain, the earth; geology. The former, Boska was about the plants and flora, while the first, Ovcci Vuomi Ovtta Veaiggis was the Joik of the wolf and an invocation of the animal realm.

The next record, reveals Sara, will be about man.

-It is natural that the next step is to Joik about man and mankind. Perhaps it will be about our direction, a record of reflection, I don’t know.

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What will making man the theme entail musically? In which direction will you be pushing the Joik the next time?

-That is a good question, and one I am unable to answer. However, it is true that my project is to take the Joik places it has never been before and juxtapose it with musical idioms and attitudes of the unconventional kind. What we did with Orvoš, bringing in punk, noise and rough-edged crunch, had not been done before to my knowledge.

Joik is often a matter of improvising, or more precisely of voicing a kind of entity that is already there. Joik has no beginning or end; it is a circu-lar, ongoing thing in which repetitions and a few key words make up the framework, especially so in the northern tradition. How is this nature of the Joik accommodated into a recording process we wonder?

-To a certain extent we let the Joik develop with the musical arrange-ments, but on the basis of a more or less clear idea. It is the Joik and its melody that forms the backbone, and then musical arrangements and instrumental improvisation take place with and around the Joik. Orvoš has been a three-year long process, during which I have worked closely with co-producer Erik Halvorsen.

The question of recording, and more generally, the question of how Joik is conveyed and passed on, takes us to one of Sara’s main concerns as a Sámi musician and pedagogue:

-Traditionally the Joik was passed on as an oral expression, from father to son. But we have to realize that this tradition is now extinct, which means that we must think differently about how this essential aspect of our culture can be preserved and passed on. It is important that we work towards de-mystifying the Joik, so that we can supplant the hazy notions of an archaic spiritual practise with concrete education. Even if it may

feel like a breech of tradition, it is vital that the Joik is institutionalised as a musical expression which can be taught on par with e.g. Norwegian folk music.

The issue is close to Sara’s heart, for he has spent much of his life as a pedagogue and he thinks the potential of Sámi music as a global musical expression is still vast and largely untapped. This brings us to Womex and his expectations towards the showcase he is doing there with his group.

-I have never been to Womex before, so I don’t know what to expect re-ally. But we certainly have high hopes for the showcase and focus all our energy and resources on this now. Naturally the most important thing is to attract as many as possible of the international music business people to our showcase. The key is to establish contacts, and get a foothold in the European markets for world music. Like I said, Sámi music is still very much unknown, despite artists like Mari Boine. When I have played in Europe people have been amazed and intrigued; wondering where this unique expression hails from. It is European music, I tell them. Hope-fully, the future will entail a knowledge and exposure of Sámi music on par with that of other indigenous traditions. The potential is great, I am certain of it.

www.johansara.com

Womex: Friday 30. October at 12 pm Nordic ClubCopenhagen Concert Center / Studio 4

Unni Løvlid:rooted explorations

Unni Løvlid is everywhere: her musical projects are numerous, the gen-res many and the collaborators diverse. Almost constantly she travels the world to perform in the most disparate of contexts.

-I like that things are constantly changing, says the young, experimental folk singer. As a musician I guess I am very restless, I am always search-ing for new vantage points and new directions to move in. However, it is not a frantic kind of quest that I am on, I feel that there is always this basic thing that I bring with me, a constant element amidst the dynamism.

This element is her firm rooting in Norwegian folk music and the sense of belonging to a tradition. Løvlid started out as a celebrated traditional singer, and it is from this base that she has developed her personal idiom and explored the universe of music; a journey that has taken her in dif-ferent directions, towards contemporary and classical music as well as electronica and experimental expressions.

-My musical identity is intimately bound up with my background in folk music, which allows me to be myself in all the different settings. Folk music is my anchorage and I could not be who I am, or do what I do, with a different point of departure, that I am sure of.

Løvlid is very conscious of the great privilege it is to feel such belonging, and also of the responsibility one accepts entering into a tradition that reaches backwards in time and that also needs to look to the future:

-Traditional music is also about values and attitudes, says Løvlid. It is about receiving something that one has the responsibility for passing on. This notion of being trusted gives me a sense of security that allows me to experiment and explore.

Vita, Løvlids 2006 record of religious folk tunes, was such an experiment. It explores the limits of music in the meditative direction one could say:

a musical experience that brings to mind oxymorons, like Milton’s darkness visible. The almost-nothingness of the production makes the sparse sounds stand forth in utter intensity. Is there, in her conception of music, a tug between the meditative and the communicative we wonder? -A conflict between the solitary and the social?

-I don’t think there is any contradiction between these two aspects, says Løvlid. Communication is at the heart of music; it is the only reason for being a musician. But on the basis of a communicative goal I think it is interesting to push expressions in the direction of sparseness and near-quiet, both musically and semantically.

Words mean a great deal to Løvlid, she reveals, in a natural way they con-stitute the fundamental aspect of singing.

-I love literature and poetry and I am always looking for good lyrics that I can use. -Especially poets that emphasise and master the phonetic aspect. I admire such people immensely, because I know how hard it is and how much work it takes.

On her previous solo

record, 2008’s Rite –a piece of music that took its lead from Vita and pushed things even fur-ther, into the realm of primordial awakenings– Løvlid wrote all the lyrics herself.

-It was very demanding, really very tough. Writing myself was what I

wanted, but I could never be a full time poet or writer, it is too demanding for me, and perhaps too reclusive and solitary.

Music however, Løvlid writes all the time; different genres – or most of the time beyond genres really– but also specific

projects and commissions. What is the musical writing process like we wonder?

The writing is pure craftsmanship, says Løvlid. But I use different ap-

proaches. Sometimes I compose on an instrument, other times I make it into more of a mental process, entailing a lot of think-ing and purely abstract experi-mentation. I often find that I think

in systems, but many systems at the same time! And I always change my perspective continu-ously as I go along, which en-tails that I try to make use of the first sketches, because they are often the most poignant and powerful. My musical orientation

is towards the intersections where communication takes place despite the differences. Again, this is something connected with my roots in tradi-tional music. The tradition is a constant, if not as manifest music then as a horizon of values. The nature of folk music is that something is upheld as a constant while something else is in continuous development.

At Womex Løvlid will mainly be performing material from Rite. As a first-timer her expectations for the event are high:

-One part of it is the business aspect of acquiring contacts and hopefully opening up new markets and possibilities. But most of all I am looking forward to meeting other musicians and hearing new music. I love being in the audience and just soaking up inspiration!

The record that will follow in Rite’s path is evolving in Løvlid’s mind:

-It will be a record in the same spirit as Rite, and again I will write every-thing myself. But there is no telling when it will be ready, it is not some-thing I can hurry along.

There is no need to wait for new music from Løvlid though; only a few days ago she released a record with Norwegian saxophonist Rolf-Erik Nystrøm and Mauritanian/Senegalese guitarist Becaye Aw. Seven Winds is a collection of songs based on the poems of Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge, and like Hauge’s poetry the music is a fusion of Norwegian folklore and the three musicians’ distinct musical dialects, with all their global influences.

www.unni.no

Womex: Saturday 31. October at 10:30 pm Nordic ClubCopenhagen Concert Center / Studio 4

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www.fordefestival.noinfo@fordefestival.no • Phone: +47 57 72 19 40

July 8-11, 2010

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Scandinavia’s largest festivalfor acoustic traditional and world music - with a strong focus on the Norwegian and Nordic traditional and contemporary

music scene. The festival was established in 1990 in Førde, a small town in the fjord region of Norway.

Meet us at Womex stand B2-040/041/042

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The Førde Folk Music Festival, in my experience, was the best produced and brilliantly programmed festival I've ever attended.

(Evangeline Kim, National Geographic Music, 2009)

ALIENS ALIVE WALTZ WITH ME COME HOME

VITA RITE SEVEN WINDS

Scandinavia’s no.1 label for ethnic, folk and world musicSee us at the Nordic stand - ch 1

See Annbjørg Lien at the opening show Wednesday the 28th of October

See Unni Løvlid at the Nordic Club Saturday the 31st of October

Marketed by Grappa Musikkforlaginfo@grappa.no // www.grappa.no

Heilo_ann_okt09_210x297 16-10-09 09:37 Page 1

Womex is a unique opportunity to present one of 2010’s most promising initiatives for the benefit of the Norwegian folk music circuit: Showcase Scotland’s ’Spotlight on Norway’.

In January 2010 Showcase Scotland will host a “Spotlight on Norway” event presenting five Norwegian artist chosen in partnership with the Norwegian Traditional Music Agency and Celtic Connections.

Showcase Scotland, a division of the massive Celtic Connection festival, is the largest gathering of the international music community in the Scot-tish calendar. A chance for promoters, record labels, agents and festival organisers to meet both the Scottish industry and each other, and an opening to see, firsthand, a vast display of performances from the cream of Scottish talent.

Each year Showcase Scotland also invites another country or region to present their music at the same venues. This has given the Norwegian Traditional Music Agency, Music Export Norway and the Norwegian Em-bassy in London the opportunity to sign a partnership agreement with Showcase Scotland in 2010. Norway receives the handover from Que-bec who was partner in 2009. The agreement gives Norwegian artists a significant opportunity to play for a global audience, eager to discover new music to bring back home.

Says the Norwegian Traditional Music Agency’s Silje Førland Erdal: ‘This initiative gives Norway’s prime folk performers a unique opportunity to present themselves on one of the scene’s major showcasing arenas and to network with key international reps. ‘Spotlight on Norway’ also repre-sents a strengthened status and increased international focus on tradi-tional Norwegian folk music.’

www.celticconnections.com

www.folkogdans.no

Showcase Scotland

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Norwegian folk music’s com-mercial flagship gears up their inter-national campaign with a number of appear-ances abroad in late 2009 and early 2010.

With appearances at countless domestic music festivals over the last two years, Valkyrien Allstars deserve to be named ‘festival act of the year’ – re-gardless of genre. Last summer saw the folk trio playing more festival gigs than any major domes-tic pop/rock act, making the hugely successful outfit a commercially flagship of the current ‘new wave’ of Norwegian folk music. At the end of the year, Valkyrien Allstars will have played more than 200 gigs, ranging from major outdoor rock festivals to intimate settings in rural areas.

Valkyrien Allstars call themselves a folk/blues/experiential trio of traditional musicians. This entails putting the most epitomic of Nor-wegian traditional instruments, the Hardanger fiddle, to new uses and infusing the traditional sound and musical structure with a diversity of new elements. Important among these is the unique voice of Tuva Syvertsen. Where traditional Norwegian folk music would empha-sise a style of singing reminiscent of a crystalline mountain stream, Syvertsen’s voice is distinctly bluesy and soulful. It has something of Janis Joplin’s coarse-beautiful power, some of pop artist Pink’s vocal pivots, some Norwegian pagan frivolity and a lot of Syvertsen’s own fiery personality. As with the other two members, Ola Hilmen and Erik Solid, she also plays the Hardanger fiddle though, and Valkyrien is first and foremost a fiddle trio, make no mistake about it.

In addition to the band’s success on the live market, last year’s critically acclaimed self-titled album sold to platinum on the domestic market. Au-tumn 2009 saw the release of the trio’s second album ‘To Måner’ which has also performed well on domestic sales charts. A Japanese tour is scheduled in December this year and appearances in Russia and in the US as well as a much-anticipated showcase at the ‘Spotlight on Norway’ event during Showcase Scotland remain high on the band’s agenda.

www.valkyrienallstars.com

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Unni Boksasp is a young, vital and charismatic folk singer who originally hails from Tingvoll on Norway’s north-western coast-line.

For her ‘Spotlight on Norway’ performance, the celebrated vocalist is backed by an all-star team of musicians; fiddlers Jorun Marie Kvernberg (of Majorstuen fame) and Olav Luksengård Mjelva, bassist Magne Vestrum and Trygve Brøske on harmonium.

The versatile vocalist, who has her training from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Faculty of Art and Folk Culture at the Telemark University College, performs both as a solo artist and with a band. The core of Boksasp’s repertoire is the rich vocal traditions of the Nordmøre region on Norway’s north-western coast. Boksasp has studied the vocal style extensively for years, with some of the tradition’s finest performers.

Boksasp has also performed contemporary works written by such well-established composers as Henning Sommerro and Henrik Øde-gaard.

2007 saw the release of Boksasp’s first solo outing, ‘Songar fra Havdal’, an album that earned Boksasp a number of highly positive reviews in the domestic music press. A review excerpt: ‘The disc’s arrangements are sophisticated and leave room for the excellent vocals that are the album’s focal point. This is a debut that solidifies a continued existence of the region’s rich musical heritage.’

In addition to a wide range of successful performances for domestic audi-ences, Boksasp also performed several well-attended showcases at the 2009 Folkelarm event in Oslo which drew a considerable international music industry contingent. Boksasp’s performance was highlighted by many of the international delegates as being one of the event’s finest.

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2010 will be busy for ‘Norway’s hot-test fiddlers’ Majorstuen – a year that

kick- starts with Showcase Scotland appearanc-es and the launch of a brand new album.

The name Majorstuen has come to signify the revival of Norwegian traditional music and its newly-won popular image as a hugely dynamic and forward-looking musical expression. Already with their eponymous debut album from 2003, this six-strong fiddle ensemble made it clear that things were

changing in the sphere of Norwegian folk. Words like “explosive” and “groundbreaking” had not previously

been associated with pure fiddle music, but that was be-fore Majorstuen came along.

Majorstuen’s secret is the way the six fiddlers have refined their widely-different musical dialects into a single characteristic and play-

ful language. But just as important is the fact that they have allowed this folk idiom to be influenced and energized by urban and eclectic musical impulses, making their pure fiddle music zeitgeisty and fresh. They are conservative about sound and instrumental line-up, but all the more open and playful when it comes to ways of reinterpreting and reinvigorating the fiddle heritage.

The result is music which is deeply rooted in tradition and distinctively Norwegian, and at the same time it is something new. Majorstuen breaks down old barriers between rural and urban concepts by presenting fiery, energetic and clever music that seems just as appropriate in a city club as on a village stage. More than anything, it is the live spectacle that this band puts on that has earned a reputation. Says band member Syn-nøve Bjørset:“The surprise and freshness of Majorstuen is not so much a matter of constellation and repertoire as the way it is played. We are instrumentalists and I think that our live personalities and the sort of ‘hap-pening dynamic’ we bring to the stage are an inexhaustible source of surprises and unexpected things. This dynamic and the direct relation to the audience are more important to us than experimentation with new sound or new elements.”

The members of Majorstuen are still young and continue to expand their musical horizons in all kinds of other projects. In this way as well, these musicians have contributed to a new dynamic professionalism among traditional musicians: Highly-educated, musically versatile, involved in diverse musical projects and constantly travelling; Majorstuen’s fiddlers represent the new folk musicians of the 21st century.

A new album has been recorded during autumn 2009 and is scheduled for release in early February next year. An exclusive pre-launch of the album is set to take place during the band’s stint at Spotlight on Norway/Showcase Scotland in January 2010.

www.myspace.com/majorstuen

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Synnøve S. Bjørset

Solo Hardanger fiddle – traditional Norwegian folk music doesn’t get any purer than this. Synnøve S. Bjørset is one of the style’s most vital voices.

Mention traditional Norwegian folk music and it’s very likely that the first instrument many associ-ate with this genre is the Hardanger fiddle. In the hands of a master, it lends a unique tonal char-acter to the folk tradition. And a master is just what Synnøve Bjørset is. Her technical skills and her dynamic control, coupled with an innovative sense of expression, is indication that the future of traditional Norwegian folk music is in good hands, indeed.

Bjørset is not confined to performing solely for a domestic audi-ence - over the last eight years she has toured extensively around the world. In addition to her focus on a traditional solo repertoire from the Sunnfjord and Sogn regions, Bjørset is also an active mem-ber of such acclaimed ensembles as Greatest Girls of Norway and Majorstuen. Says Bjørset: ‘At first, what fascinated me was the sound and timbre of the Hardanger Fiddle: rough, crisp and porous, resonant and rich in harmonics, defiant and vulnerable. Then I became captivated by the great epic tunes. Later I found other, smaller tunes, and with them the joy of discovering greatness in little things.’

Bjørset has studied at the Norwegian State Academy of Music and drawn inspiration from some of the best-known and most outstanding fiddlers in the country, such as Håkon Høgemo. By working with historical archive recordings she has developed a distinctive repertoire based on a mini-malistic melodic material. March 2009 saw the release of Bjørset’s latest solo outing, ‘Slåttar’ - a tasteful, melodious collection of little-known tunes and reinterpretations of familiar standards. The traditional tunes are root-ed in the fjord and mountain regions of Sunnfjord, Sogn and Valdres; areas where dance tunes and spiritual airs go hand in hand. Many of the tunes are based on simple melodic structures, which Bjørset attacks with her own brand of ferocious Hardanger fiddle minimalism. Building on archived transcripts and recordings, she has developed a uniquely individual style that accentuates the rhythmic nuances of the music.

September 2009 saw Bjørset playing a set of superb solo performances at Oslo’s Folkelarm showcase festival in front of a delegation of interna-tional music industry execs which in turn has led to a number of future appearances abroad.

www.myspace.com/ bjorset

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“Spotlight on Norway’s” representa-tives from the Sami music tradition, Skáidi,

fuse joik and jazz into a unique concoction.

Skáidi is a union of two top performers with wildly dif-fering backgrounds: Steinar Raknes – arguably one of Norway’s best jazz double bassists – and Inga

Juuso – one of the nation’s foremost female joik-ers (a performer of the ancient Sámi chanting vocal style). With Skáidi, Raknes and Juuso have man-

aged to make use of elements from their respective styles and genres to create a new, raw, coherent and

groundbreaking form of expression. Juuso and Raknes have performed frequently together over the last decade,

a collaboration that resulted in last year’s critically acclaimed album ‘Where the rivers meet’.

The foundation for the duo’s repertoire is compositions written by Raknes to complement Juuso’s joiks, and the end result is a mix that challenges the preconceptions of genres and explores uncharted terri-tory. Improvisation is at the forefront for the two, who consistently chal-lenge each other to explore new aspects of their respective forms of expression. Skillful management of dynamics is another field in which Skáidi excel – their tunes range from muted lyrical passages to wild

and exuberant cascades of energy.

Skáidis music is lyrical, stripped-down, melodic and highly rhythmical.The mix of compositional structures and improvisation renders the sonic palette spontaneous and playful. Framed by Steinar’s arrangements, In-ga’s voice is a sweeping tumult of vitality and life force; often leaving the listener with new-found faith in fairytales and subterranean landscapes. This encounter between two musical traditions is laced with elegance, artistic depth and healthy doses of humour.

The past year has seen the duo reaping the benefits created by ‘Where the rivers meet’s rave reviews. They have performed extensively at home as well as throughout Scandinavia and in France, Spain and Argentina.

www.skaidi.org

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rio Young and vital fiddler

Gjermund Larsen fronts a trio that brings folk music to places it

has never been.

Gjermund Larsen enjoys a position as one of the most respected and active performers/compos-ers on the contemporary Norwegian folk music

scene. Educated at the Norwegian State Acad-emy educated fiddler and composer is a mem-ber of ensembles Majorstuen, Frigg, Brødrene Larsen, Ragnhild Furebotten trio and Christian

Wallumrød ensemble. Larsen’s proper debut as a composer came in the form of the work ‘Brytnings-

tid’ which was commissioned by the Telemark Festi-val two years ago. The majority of the work is devoted to

contemporary and original folk music, which draws inspira-tion from the local dance music traditions of the Verdal area in

the Trøndelag region. Double bassist Sondre Meisfjord and pian-ist/organist Andreas Utnem played at the premiere of ‘Brytningstid’ and the three have continued the fruitful collaboration to date. The pieces featured in ‘Brytningstid’ still constitute the base of the trio’s repertoire, a repertoire that has continued to grow in magnitude and diversity over the last two years. The three band members represent a wide range of genres, spanning from classical and

contemporary, to jazz and pop as well as traditional folk music – a diverse background that results in a aesthetically and rewarding sonic landscape.

Critics call Gjermund a uniquely poetic folk musician distinguished by the gentle warmth of his tone, the natural lure of his melodies and the broad range of his poetic sensibility: from catchy dance tunes to tran-quil meditations. Last year saw the record debut of his own Gjermund Larsen Trio. «Ankomst» (Arrival) reaped unanimous acclaim and won a Spellemannspris award – the Norwegian equivalent to the Grammy. Even amidst the brilliant revival of Norwegian folk music this was a record that truly stood out; a selection of songs so rich and diverse in emotion and so beautiful and well tempered in execution that the whole horizon of Norwegian folk music seemed to have been broadened.‘I am inspired by all kinds of music, says Gjermund, even though the traditional music of my home region has always been most important. This is primarily dance music, with a pretty rough and aggressive style of playing. However, my chief source of influence is Hilmar Alexandersen who was a local fiddler and composer with an unusually rich and diverse repertoire. There are strong lyrical elements and a lot of melancholia in his music. I think my so-called poetic vein has to do with this influence. I always put emphasis on the ambience of the music and the melody. My goal is to make good melodies.’

Gjermund composes his music on the violin, sometimes on a foot bellow organ, and occasionally using computer software.

‘Sometimes I want the music I write to sound entirely traditional, and so I simply work within the conventional framework. But other times I take my starting point from something that is clearly in breech of the traditional formula, like an unconventional rhythm pattern. The challenge is to retain the folk elements and make them stand out and shine in a new context, which could mean untraditional instrumentation or novel rhythm patterns. I am not interested in merging traditional expressions with other genres really; it is more about expanding the horizon of folk and exploring the possibilities.’

www.gjermundlarsen.com

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The Great Nordic NightJohan Sara Jr.Unni Løvlid

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