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Written in Folk Roots issue 149, 1995

CHATEAU NEUF SPELEMANNSLAG
Spell
Heilo HCD 7104 (1995)

Not the straight Norwegian folk-dance band its name might suggest, this 19-piece, though much of what it does is dance music and all of it has strong Norwegian folk-music roots, is a much more exploratory beast than that. Born among students at the Ole Bull Academy in Voss, led by reeds-player Carl Petter Opsahl and produced by Tellef Kvifte it makes an exuberant, beefy, splashy big-band noise (apart from some acapella vocal arrangements) with three fiddle/hardingfele players, five women singers, up to five saxes, clarinets, oboe, flute, piano, accordion, Hammond, guitars, bass and drums.


© 1995 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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