Nordic contemporary folk trio Mojna has followed up their critically acclaimed second album, 2024’s Väntenätter, with yet another deep dive into the space where composed contrapuntal music meets purposeful improvisation. Once again the music on Mareld treats boundaries as nonexistent, blending European classical ideas with Nordic folk, Carnatic song, Balkan rhythms and harmonies, and the spirit of jazz invention.
As on their previous recordings, the music on Mareld features composer and guitarist Thomas Eriksson and Anna Malmström on clarinet and especially bass clarinet, with Hardanger fiddler Tuva Færden, who replaces Helga Myhr (who keeps busy performing solo and with Morgonrode, Kvedarkvintetten, Dei Kjenslevare and Helga og Tanja). The opening track “Dov” very helpfully presents a straightforward Nordic dance tune in 6/8 with all three musicians playing parts on a woven counterpoint, to get the listener accustomed to the way these elements work together.
That prepares you for more experimental like “Giftpinnen” (The poison stick), which has a lengthy and atmospheric introduction in which Malmström squeaks and skitters and sighs on a B-flat clarinet over a nearly inaudible drone on Hardanger and furtive guitar fingerpicking, before it opens up in a brief but beguiling and complex dance tune. And that one’s followed by the title track “Mareld,” an elegiac fiddle tune that features Erikssen playing his guitar with an effects pedal that mimics a harmonium. This is a great sound — not saying Mojna needs another instrument, but if they added one, harmonium would be perfect!
By now we’re deep in the album’s second half, and “Ishav” (Arctic Sea), an exuberant dance tune with Celtic influence, the guitar and bass clarinet swapping duties of pairing the melody that’s being played by the Hardanger. When she’s not playing the melody, Anna interjects deep muzzy notes on bass clarinet that suggest it was inspired by a more typical Nordic folk instrument, the jaw harp. They’ve been playing this one a long time in concert, where it’s a favorite (I can see why!) and it finally found a place on their third release.
And the album wraps with the delicate “Ide” (Idea), where we find Tuva singing wordlessly to a wandering melody (again with Brahms antecedents), backed by warm guitar plucking and soft bass clarinet.
Not to skip a lot of good music on the first half of the program: the intricate counterpoint of “Färger av gamla båtar” (Colors of old boats), which wouldn’t be out of place on the setlist of a modern Americana string band such as Hawktail; the stately, Brahms-influenced “Björnögon”; and the intricate “Liminalpolska” a traditional sounding dance interpreted as an intimate duet between Hardanger and bass clarinet.
Mojna continues to play high quality contemporary Nordic folk music with their own unique sound. Recommended if you like Väsen, Frigg, etc.
(Grappa, 2025)
