Tag Archives: Nordic music

Various artists’ Arctic Paradise: Contemporary Finnish Folk Music 2001-2002

Judith Gennett penned this review. Finland, with only 5 1/2 million people, is home to Linux, Nokia, and a lot of amazing music. Arctic Paradise is a free promotional sampler series devised by the Finnish Music Information Center to introduce the … Continue reading

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Haugaard & Høirup’s Light

This album, Lys in Danish, won three Danish Music Awards (the “Danish Grammys”) in 2002, for Best Folk Album, Best Folk Artist (traditional), and Best Folk Instrumentalist (Harald Haugaard), and as they say on their Web site, “we are very, … Continue reading

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Kjell-Erik Arnesen and Jrgen Larsen’s Calls, and Frydis Ree Wekre’s Ceros

Both of these albums are horn-based. The horn is much less popular, it seems, than its cousins in the brass family. Most jazz bands have saxophone, trombone, and trumpet sections (in order of decreasing size), but no horns. I haven’t … Continue reading

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Maria Kalaniemi and Timo Alakotila’s Ambra

Maria Kalaniemi is perhaps the best known and certainly one of the most prolific of the new school of Finnish folk musicians who are pushing the boundaries of their music. The accordionist, a graduate of the prestigious Sebelius Academy, combines … Continue reading

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Väsen’s Linnaeus Väsen 

According to the Väsen Web site, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame said in Dagens Industri Weekend (May 19-20 2006), ‘In Sweden you have Väsen. It’s a traditional folk band based on the Nyckelharpa, and it’s really good music, … Continue reading

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Svobsk’s En Klang af Tidloshed (A Sound of Timelessness) 

En Klang af Tidloshed is the second CD from this Danish neo-traditional band. Their first outing, Sig Mig (Tell Me), was issued in 2005. Back then, the band was a duet, with Maren Hallberg on accordion and Jorgen Dickmeiss on stringed instruments … Continue reading

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A Nordic Roots Omni: Ragnhild Furholt’s Lån Meg Vengjene; Ragnhild Furebotten’s Edelig Vals; Kristine Heebøll’s 10 Point; Svend-Erik Pedersen’s Selsølåter — Låter fra Selsø; Eskil Romme’s Himmerlandsmelodier

Nordic roots. That’s what this review is about. We tend to refer to “Nordic trad” a lot around here at GMR, but it strikes me, surveying these CDs, that “traditional” is going to get bent badly out of shape, perhaps … Continue reading

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Tummel’s Payback Time

Think about the band playing on while the Titanic goes down. Think of some of Joel Gray’s bitchier numbers in Cabaret. Think of Josephine Baker at her most outrageous taking Paris by storm. Think of a bunch of crazy Swedes … Continue reading

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Grannar’s Sofiagatan: Folk Music from Southern Sweden; Väsen’s Väsen Street; Kari Tauring’s Völva Songs

“Traditional” is one of those words that gets bandied about a lot these days, particularly when talking about families and music. I’ll leave families to a more political outlet and talk about music here. Now, “traditional” in music can mean … Continue reading

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The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc in concert

I usually don’t like it when a concert review is more about the reviewer than the musicians, so I’ll apologize up front. But this time, it’s kind of all I’ve got. The day started well enough (and – spoiler alert … Continue reading

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