Big Earl Sellar wrote this review.
It’s interesting how the current interest in reviving older traditions has been embraced by younger people throughout the world. Plommon is a group of five young women from Sweden playing traditional songs within a neotraditional context; namely a touch of recorder and harmonium here and there, but primarily working as a five piece fiddle ensemble. Sah! is a disc of rich cultural heritage performed lovingly and in deference to the tradition.
The connection between the Swedish and Scottish dance song formats is strongly accented here, although it has more to do with the use of fiddle (common to both idioms in the modern context) than reliance on the hardanger (or traditional 10-string fiddle of the Nordic lands), as with other groups working in similar veins. “Rusken” illustrates some of the common points of these formats, the cross-over of certain melodic ideas, while maintaining the Swedish format of fill-in measures, adding an extra jauntiness to the song. Likewise, there’s a touch of the Germanic traditions popping up in pieces like the harmonium-based “Sannas Sang Till Tuomo,” with it’s stoic bass and fugue-like middle section.
But as soon as the vocals kick in, this is a disc of traditional Scandinavian music at its finest. “Sex Alnar Silkeband” comes forth with a rollicking (bordering on reckless) groove that features great, tight vocals from all. “Om Du Agde,” a haunting put-down of a suitor, mixes beautiful (if somewhat brief) poetry with a truly ancient sounding melody. Plainly put, there’s not a bum nor boring track on this disc, which is more than I can say for a lot coming out of the Swedish Tradition lately.
The disc is a live recording (from a concert in Germany, oddly enough) and has a rather peculiar sound as a result. It has tones one would expect from a studio recording, yet the mix varies greatly, even within the span of one song. The pumping of the bellows is clearly audible throughout the disc, as are moments of fiddle bow scratching. The tempos are organic (read, a little wavering), which adds to the dynamic of this disc. The packaging looks like something belonging to a pop record, trendier than one would expect from the music within, but it looks wonderful and gives us translations of the often stunningly beautiful lyrics. Really, about the only knock I can give this whole package is that Plommon’s website is solely in Swedish, and their label’s site is coarsely translated from German. So as a result, you get a great deal of great music and very little information to follow it up with. (Either that or I should learn some Swedish.)
Sah! is a sprightly little disc, one that stands out from the current crop of Scandinavian roots discs that are (thankfully!) popping up lately. These women play and sing with an understanding of their tradition that belies their age. Truly wonderful and welcome.
(Akkudisk, 2002)
