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Written in fRoots issue 301, 2008
 

ANNBJØRG LIEN
Waltz With Me
Heilo HCD 7216 (2008)

DANIEL SANDÉN-WARG & SIGURD BROKKE
Rammeslag
Etnisk Musikklubb EM29 (2007)

Hardanger-fiddle diva Annbjørg Lien’s latest album stems from a concert commissioned by Telemark festival for which she formed a quartet with US fiddler, guitarist and singer Bruce Molsky, Swedish viola player Mikael Marin of Väsen and Glasgow-resident Canadian cellist Christine Hanson. On some tracks they play as an energetic bowed-string quartet, on others Molsky switches to guitar. There are three songs; for two Kirsten Bråten Berg delivers regal Norwegian vocals in lyrics by Arnt Birkedal and Knut Buen, joined by Molsky’s contrasting singing of the English versions, and he takes the vocal alone for the third, another Birkedal text but translated into English.
      The tunes, of the instrumentals and the songs, are all by Lien herself and are as deeply shaped by the Norwegian tradition as ever, even as she absorbs and draws on wider influences including further exploring the affinity between Norwegian and American old-timey fiddling. That connection is clearly apparent in The Old Car, and of course in Molsky’s presence, though rather than pulling things in a transatlantic direction he blends sympathetically into the Nordicness, particularly with his playing of hardanger fiddle.
      Heilo CDs come from Grappa, www.grappa.no, and you can hear tracks from Waltz With Me at www.myspace.com/annbjorglien.

      Fiddler Daniel Sandén-Warg was half of the powerful Swedish sympathetic-stringed viola d’amore duo Harv. The other half, Magnus Stinnerbom, is now a member of Hedningarna and the Ale Möller Band; it was his father Leif who introduced Daniel to the music of Norway’s Setesdal, in particular that of the late fiddler, jew’s-harp player and singer Torleiv H. Bjørgum and his fiddler son Hallvard T, both fine musicians well-known as competition winners and from their recordings on their Sylvartun label. (Hallvard has also made some interesting collaborations with foreign musicians, including American singer-songwriter Eric Andersen and the Band’s Garth Hudson, some of which feature on his remarkably eclectic Free Field CD of a few years ago).
      So ten years ago Daniel moved to Setesdal to learn from Hallvard, not only hardanger-fiddling but the silversmithing that the region is also well known for, and he’s become well respected in Norway as expert at both.
      Setesdal is also the heartland of the making and playing of jew’s-harps in Norway, and Sigurd Brokke is one of its leading players. On this album he and Sandén-Warg don’t duet, but take turns in delivering groups of solo-played classic Setesdal tunes from the repertoires of the Bjørgums, the Rysstads, the Faremos, Bjørgulv Uppstad, Knut Heddi, Knut Brokke, Gunnar Helle and others.
      As the CD’s title implies, there are some of the rammeslåttane, hypnotic tunes played in the string-slackened gorrlaus tuning that makes the bass string ‘buzz like a bumblebee’; they were traditionally resorted to by a fiddler in an extreme of frustration or irritation, sawing away until the fiddle was lifted from his grip. Brokke’s jew’s-harp buzzes too – Norwegian players favour quite a high-pitched, loud instrument with bright, clear harmonics that bring out the shape and detail of the tunes, most of which are shared with the fiddle repertoire.
      Both musicians have high technique and strong rhythmic drive propelled by a wooden-floor foot-stamp, and it’s an album recommended as exemplifying the other-worldly energy of Setesdal’s strong tradition.

      www.etniskmusikklubb.no


© 2008 Andrew Cronshaw



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