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Written in fRoots issue 338/339, 2011


VARIOUS ARTISTS
Beginner’s Guide To Scandinavia
Nascente NSBOX079 (2011)

A tough job, squeezing a representative, inviting sampling of the music of all the Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark and the Faroes - into just three CDs, but what compiler Tatiana Rucinska has come up with is indeed a good and unusual introduction to today’s music.
     In three loose categories, “Pop and Contemporary”, “Folk and Roots” and “Jazz, Experimental & Atmospheres”, there are many familiar names for the Nordic-initiated, but I won’t mention them because that would be to sideline the rest, and the value of this compilation is that it has a different viewpoint that one hopes will inspire exploration. Leaving out Norden’s classical music and most of its mainstream chart-pop, and largely playing down the fiddling that, while an essential and strong feature of the folk musics of Norway and Sweden in particular, can obscure some of their other delights, there’s an emphasis on vocals, often female, and the richly varied textures of the other instruments and musical approaches that make today’s Nordic musics distinctive.
     The label’s website www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/nascente currently buries it in the back-catalogue, not in new or recent releases, but a glance at the track listing at online sellers’ sites, and its remarkably bargain price – under £7 or even under £6 – should spur click-buy action. (Did I really just write that?)


© 2011 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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