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Written in fRoots issue 256, 2004
 

BUKKENE BRUSE
Spel
Heilo HCD 7188 (2004)

TORE BRUVOLL & JON ANDERS HALVORSEN
Nattsang
Heilo HCD 7194 (2004)

Opening with the beautiful, stately Folketone Fra Sunnmøre, in which Bukkene Bruse is accompanied by the Vertavo string quartet, Spel by the Norwegian quartet of Annbjørg Lien, Arve Moen Bergset, Steinar Ofsdal and Bjørn Ole Rasch casts balm on the soul. Not that it’s all slow and stately; after the opener they launch into En Enda Villere Vinter, with the string quartet ripping in with just as much energy as the band.
      Since it is a live album (and one so well recorded that it has all the quality of a studio work), a scattering of old favourites from Annbjørg’s and the quartet’s repertoires show up, reworked and shining, among the gorgeous melodies which are mostly from tradition with a scattering written by Annbjørg, Ofsdal or others.
      Bergset’s singing has matured from scrubbed boy tenor to a masterly plainsong-like range and control, while keyboardist, arranger and producer Rasch, who joined the group several years after its formation, has had a transforming effect in enriching its sound and scope. What started out in 1993 as a collaborative project between three star soloists - player of hardingfele and nyckelharpa Annbjørg, singer and fiddler Arve Moen, and Steinar, doyen of Norway’s breathy and reedy traditional whistles – has become a band, moving between powerful ensemble and commanding soloing in exquisite material.

      Jon Anders Halvorsen is a young singer of vocal perfection not unlike that of Arve Moen Bergset, and with similarly high credentials. A member in the mid-nineties of the traditional vocal group Dvergmål, a couple of years ago he won the vocal prize at the Landskappleik, and teamed up with guitarist Tore Bruvoll.
      Nattsang marks their joint leap forward into the Norwegian roots front line, not just vocally but in terms of musical classiness and choice of material. With the subtle, sophisticated and entirely well-matched tones of Bruvoll, percussionist Per Oddvar Johansen, Gjermund Larsen’s viola and Arve Henriksen’s smoky trumpet, Halvorsen brings us a set of traditional ballads sung in his native Telemark within the past 150 years, some from collections and some learnt from living singers. Apart from the quiet excellence of the music, the melodies and stories will be a something of a revelation to any disposed to assume that the English and Scottish ballads are a unique phenomenon, or that Norwegian tradition is all Vikings and sagas.


© 2004 Andrew Cronshaw


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