Nordic players

[murphydog]

I have been listening to a lot of Nordic music recently,particularly those featuring the excellent Ale Moller. What discs do people recommend? I'm keen to expand my listening.

[Peter Hackman]

Is there an instrument that Ale Möller has never touched?

Anyway, recently I've been listening to Väsen, a
group that really succeeds in making Swedish folk music
(if that is what it is) sound universal. Viola/violin+
keyed harp+ 12-string, although Roger Tallroth plays
some bouzouki, too. The label is Xource, check
their website.

Väsen means essence or being - or noise.

[dane]

If you're looking for mando and mando-family instruments, my favorites are:

Draupner, "Draupner"
Petri Hakala & Markku Lepisto, "Pelimannnien Jaljilla"
Ottopasuuna, "Ottopasuuna"
Boot, "Virvla"

Also, check out this site for hundreds of video clips of Nordic musicians and bands (including Ale Moller [with Frifot], Draupner [the first Draupner video, "Ante Sundin," is especially good], Vasen, Boot, and lots others):


TVFolk.net (http://www.tvfolk.net/)

Probably the best single place to sample a LOT of Nordic music (though you may end up wasting hours there).

[otterly2k]

I want to expand my range of listening, and am glad for the suggestions posted here.

For non mando-specific listening, I'll add that the fiddle duo called Harv is wonderful, and I'm also a fan of the band Varttina (features a vocal trio of women, as well as a full band).
KE

[Dave Caulkins]

Nordic music rocks!

I highly recommend the 'Nordic Roots' samplers, as they feature many of the bands mentioned (plus alot of others) and their only $3.00 or so a disc!!! I have never found as much good music for so little (new, anyways). Varttina are great, I especially like Illmattar (? on sp, disc away from computer).

One of the things I really enjoy about Scandanavian folk music is the slightly darker vein it is often performed in. There is a certain 'spooky' winter tinged quality that somehow cuts into my bones and makes me shiver. Great music for reading the old Icelandic sagas.

On a completely different, yet related note, if you're open minded check out Finntroll - a Finnish metal band drawing off traditional polkas (Huumpa?). Wow, metal accordion, that's creepy.

Hail!!

Dave

[Paul Kotapish]

The most convenient source in the U.S. for new trad-based Scandinavian music is Northside Nordic Roots Music, a great outfit based in Minneapolis. The have licensed vast amounts of the best acoustic music coming out of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark.

Not a lot of mandolin on their recordings--the emphasis is more on trad instruments such as fiddle, nyckleharpa, and hardanger fiddle--but wonderful music and great tunes that make a pretty nice transition to the world of the plectrum.

Ale Möller is one of their artists who does play a bunch of bouzouki, and his recordings with Frifot and his duet album with Shetland fiddler Aly Bain are all wonderful.

http://www.noside.com/

I'll second all of the suggestions made already, especially Väsen, also available on Northside. Väsen's new CD, "Keyed Up," is gorgeous, as are all of their earlier recordings. One of the wonders of Väsen is the viola work of Mikael Marin. He puts the lie to every viola joke ever made, and endless ideas and inspiration for mandola players.

Another great source for Nordic music is CD Roots at:

http://www.cdroots.com

They carry some great mandolin recordings, including those by the amazing Petri Hakala. Here's a whole list of recordings featuring his mandolin work:

http://www.cdroots.com/cgi/searchcds.cgi?s=hakala

Finland has an incredible mandolin scene. I played the Kaustinen Festival over there a few years back and learned--at the last minute--that I had to give a mandolin workshop. No worries, I thought. I'd just taught for a full week at a camp in the U.S., so I reckoned I had plenty of material to keep them busy for a couple of hours. Well, Petri and a dozen other young virtuosi showed up and managed to chew up and digest a week's worth of material in about 15 minutes. After that I let them teach me.

The whole Scandinavian folk scene is a real inspiration. There is major support for the traditional arts at all levels of society, from the government to the academies to the average Ole on the street, and it isn't compartmentalized into some quaint box the way trad music is in so many other places. There are scads of great young players and they are all well grounded in the traditions and they all seem to be composing up a storm. Imagine a festival with dozens of young Nickel Creeks, and you get some idea of the scene.

[grsnovi]

I was turned on to Nordic roots by Eric Bazillian (no slouch on the mando) by way of Hedningarna. Got to see them live twice the weekend after I first got my first cd of theirs. Have since been to two Nordic Roots Festivals in Minneapolis. I heartily endorse visiting the Northside web site and "sampling" and if not there, try to pick up their sampler cd's called: CHEAPER THAN FOOD (vol. 1, 2 and 3) which used to sell for $3 or $5 each.

[whistler]

Oh Dear!

Has 'Nordic' become one of those terms like 'Celtic', used to divide up musical genres in CD shops? We could start a debate on the Nordicity of Finnish music.

Sorry to be cynical. Swedish and Norwegian music are clearly very closely related, and are probably best divided up according to a multitude of regional styles rather than their being either Norwegian or Swedish. On the West coast of Finland, there exists a tradition of Swedish music, the music of several centuries worth of settlers from across the Gulf of Bothnia. This should not be confused with Finnish music, which, although at some levels influenced by Swedish music (the abundance of dance forms such as 'polska', for example), is a distinct, non-Nordic, tradition. If anything, there is as much Russian influence as Swedish. Värttinä in particular, mentioned by Dave (leshii) above, draw on a tradition that is distinctly Finno-Ugric, definitely not Nordic. Listening to their songs, you can hear how closely the music is linked to the language - which is closer to Japanese than Swedish.

Since we're on Finnish music, check out the late fiddler/composer, Konsta Jylhä, from the Kaustinen area.

For a band that combine Swedish and a bit of Finnish music, try Hedningarna.

Don't forget that the music of Shetland has its roots in old Nordic traditions, although since being handed over to Scotland by Norway in C17(??), it has been reshaped somewhat to resemble what we now call, some of us grudgingly, Celtic music.

[mandocrucian]

Whister,

Why don't you stay a bit closer to (your) home (Scotland vs Ireland vs Northumbria, etc) before making rather shallow sweeping pronouncments about Nordic, Scandinavian, and/or Finnish music?

History of Finland (http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/hist.html)


The Nordic region has an aggregate population of about 24 million. The Nordic countries consist of Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Finland, Åland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The Faroe Islands and Greenland are both part of the kingdom of Denmark, and Åland is part of the republic of Finland. Nordic Council (http://www.norden.org/web/1-1-fakta/uk/index.asp?lang=6)

Niles Hokkanen

[whistler]

Sorry, Niles. I was being impulsive. Perhaps I should have consulted a dictionary and encylopedia before mouthing off. I'm sorry if I have patronised you or anyone else on this forum.

I just have bit of a bee in my bonnet about categorisation of music. I suppose the only point I was making, which nobody here will disagree with, is that the music of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland is enormously diverse and doesn't fit comfortably into a single category.

[Magnus Geijer]

I'm still looking for a bluegrass band with nyckelharpa. I can't see how it would sound anything but great, but I'm beginning to think I'll have to do it myself if I'm ever going to get to hear it.

/Magnus

[Dave Caulkins]

I appologize if I inadvertantly started the classification debacle. I also love Hedningarna, I have their Karelia Visa album which is great - if a little short. I discovered the 'Nordic Roots' compilations years ago (like 4 years), and it sent me looking, for the first time, for Northern European folk music. I'm still learning and listening. I usually refer to 'Nordic' music as Scandanavian, which probably opens a new can of worms! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

When I was younger, I found myself railing against any sort of 'pigeon-holing' of music. Indeed, music is music, and as a form of communication it should be open to interpretation and transcend boundaries. However, as I spent more and more years playing & listening, I realized that grouping similar styles together probably does more to expose new music to new people. Yeah, I've gone through the CD bins marked 'Celtic' & 'Scandanavian'. I've pulled out some good stuff. Yeah, I cringe when I realize how commercialization and its endless tagging and labelling has weakened traditional music (read: Riverdance) - but lingering in obscurity is a far worse option, IMHO.

I realize there aren't alot of metal fans here, which is fine (how much metal mando is there after all?). Finntroll, a distinctly Finnish metal band, sing in Swedish despite their nationality. They say it is more 'trollish'. Perhaps, this weakens the Finnish influence, perhaps not. Other heavy bands, in Sweden and Norway, also draw heavily from folk tradition (Einherjer, Ensiferum, Thyrfing, and a horde of others). Maybe this is the kind of cross-pollination some would like to avoid? I personally love it, having been a 'headbanger' in my youth as well as a afficianado of world music and progressive rock.

Some of us like Celtic music because of what it is, not what mass marketing schemes want us to believe it is. Yeah, I can usually tell the diffence between regions, ie Irish vs. Northumbrian vs. Welsh vs. Cape Breton vs. the music of Brittany. I probably don't verbally seperate it as much as purists may like, so be it. If calling both Stivell and Ennis #'Celtic' is a crime, I am guilty. I also believe that Americans (South, North, I don't care about the continents) can produce legitimate music in ethnic styles. I don't even care about ancestry, as I am a mutt myself (as were we all, at some time or another in history).

I'm wandering off topic, so I'll clip this short....

Keep Music Alive,

Dave/Leshii
(a Leshii is a Slavic/Russian forest spirit in traditional mythologies BTW)

[otterly2k]

<<I just have bit of a bee in my bonnet about categorisation of music. I suppose the only point I was making, which nobody here will disagree with, is that the music of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland is enormously diverse and doesn't fit comfortably into a single category.>>

Yes, in fact, in most categories (of people, of musics, of anything) you will find a lot of variation. Still, it is the nature of humans and a necessity of language to categorize things. I'm not opposed to categorical labels...like any tool, it's how they are used that matters to me.

What bothers me about the way categories are used in the recording industry is that it's too much about marketing and money, and also fails to capture the subtleties of how musical influences travel across national, cultural and genre-boundaries. But I appreciate that, having heard Vartinna and liked it, there was a word (Nordic) that directed me to a whole family of (diverse) music that I was previously unaware of.

IMO, it is important that there are purists out there who are devoted to preserving particular musical forms so that they don't get lost in the endless morphing of musical styles. E.g. Irish Trad. We need these as touchstones. However, the valid questions always are... how far back do we go to call something "authentic" and where do we draw the lines?

I'll leave that for ethnomusicologists to sort out. For myself, I love the purer forms AND the the fact that people are all the time fusing and experimenting in different ways, for different purposes. Sometimes the results are just stunning...other times you get what I call "cultural train wrecks" (e.g. jalapeno bagels!) Regardless, it is the musical imagination at work that astounds me.

[Peter Hackman]

I realize there aren't alot of metal fans here, which is fine (how much metal mando is there after all?). Finntroll, a distinctly Finnish metal band, sing in Swedish despite their nationality. They say it is more 'trollish'. Perhaps,
Dave/Leshii
(a Leshii is a Slavic/Russian forest spirit in traditional mythologies BTW)
And not because it's their mother tongue?
Being of Finnish-Swedish descent
(my mother grew up in Turku)
that would be my first guess.

Nordic, or Scandinavian, are somewhat deceptive labels;
I didn't give Väsen a listen befor Darol Anger wrote
about them as an exciting "new acoustic" group.
I.e., a group whose music defies labels.

[Dave Caulkins]

Actually, the singer's mother-tongue may be Swedish (I vaguely remember this, but 'more trollish' is the reason they always seem to give in a number of interviews...).

Dave

[mandocrucian]

The Helsinki Mandoliners 1 (http://http://www2.siba.fi/kamu/levyt/hkimand1_en.html)

Folk Music In Finland, Part 1 Older Forms (http://http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/finland/niles.html)

[whistler]

Dave (leshii),

Thanks for coming so graciously to my defence. I think I deserved to be cut down to size, if nothing else, for wording my posting so brashly and potentially offensively. People are more intelligent than I sometimes give them credit for,

Dave.

[grsnovi]

While I haven't sampled all of NorthSide's catalog, I have a fair number of their releases and have been to a couple of their NORDIC ROOTS MUSIC festivals in Minneapolis. They have individual artists who get painted with the "Nordic" category brush simply due to being on their label and from a Nordic country. Some of these artists don't "sound" Nordic to me at all and there are aspects of what I think of as "Nordic" that are very close to what I think of as "Celtic".

I think the biggest point to remember is that: it is a wide and wooly world out there, sample some of everything!

I have some great "Middle Eastern" recordings that I like a lot too.

There is a USA-based Nyckelharpa society if I remember (I visited a web site that had hundreds of members listed with addresses). I see no reason why it wouldn't work in "bluegrass" it is really just a keyed fiddle.

[Paul Kotapish]

There is a USA-based Nyckelharpa society if I remember (I visited a web site that had hundreds of members listed with addresses).

American Nyckelharpa Society (http://www.nyckelharpa.org/index.htm)

Good site with lots of resources about the nyckelharpa, its players, and its repertoire.

[Bluegrasstjej]

I'm still looking for a bluegrass band with nyckelharpa. I can't see how it would sound anything but great, but I'm beginning to think I'll have to do it myself if I'm ever going to get to hear it.

/Magnus
Sounds like a cool idea. My boyfriend plays some nyckelharpa, it would be fun to try it..

[Shana Aisenberg]

My partner plays some Nyckelharpa in our duo, usually we use it to play Swedish music, however we've played a few old time tunes with it as well.

Seth

[boysmithers]

I realize there aren't alot of metal fans here, which is fine (how much metal mando is there after all?). Finntroll, a distinctly Finnish metal band, sing in Swedish despite their nationality. They say it is more 'trollish'. Perhaps, this weakens the Finnish influence, perhaps not. Other heavy bands, in Sweden and Norway, also draw heavily from folk tradition (Einherjer, Ensiferum, Thyrfing, and a horde of others). Maybe this is the kind of cross-pollination some would like to avoid? I personally love it, having been a 'headbanger' in my youth as well as a afficianado of world music and progressive rock.

Some of us like Celtic music because of what it is, not what mass marketing schemes want us to believe it is. Yeah, I can usually tell the diffence between regions, ie Irish vs. Northumbrian vs. Welsh vs. Cape Breton vs. the music of Brittany. I probably don't verbally seperate it as much as purists may like, so be it. If calling both Stivell and Ennis #'Celtic' is a crime, I am guilty. I also believe that Americans (South, North, I don't care about the continents) can produce legitimate music in ethnic styles. I don't even care about ancestry, as I am a mutt myself (as were we all, at some time or another in history).

I'm wandering off topic, so I'll clip this short....

Keep Music Alive,

Dave/Leshii
(a Leshii is a Slavic/Russian forest spirit in traditional mythologies BTW)
Hey Leshii,
I'm with you on the Finntroll http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif great band!
Have you heard of Agalloch? If not you should check out "The Mantle" it's nowhere near as crazy as Finntroll, kind of "acoustic metal" with growled/whispered vocals. There's even a mando on the last track "A Desolation Song"!