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Written in fRoots issue 314/315, 2009
 

FÆRD, DORGE, BECKER, HJETLAND
Kryss
Tutl SHD 86 (2008)

BALTINGET
Alive
GO’ Danish GO 1608 (2008)

Denmark’s expanding roots music scene isn’t all new names; musicians who have been devoted over the years to making it happen continue to develop new directions.
      Soprano saxist Eskil Romme, traditional fiddler Peter Uhrbrand from the island of Fanø, and Swedish bouzouki and guitar player Jens Ulvsand form the present line-up of Færd but are, variously, prime movers in traditional music based groups including ULC, Jæ’ Sweevers, Sula, Suleskær, Trio Mio and other projects, as well as teaching on the folk music degree course at Odense’s Carl Nielsen Academy. Færd’s previous album had guest vocals from Nielsen Academy student Jullie Hjetland, who as a result of her work on Kryss won Vocalist of the Year 2009 in the folk section of the Danish Music Awards.
      For Kryss, Færd teams up with two musicians from world music band New Jungle Orchestra: Pierre Dorge on guitar, Turkish cümbüs, Chinese frets ruan and liuquin and a touch of conch trumpet, and keyboardist Irene Becker. The result is a varied, elegant and outward-looking album of material traditional Danish and original including Uhrbrand’s tune Scandinavian Tribute To The Kurds, and for the closer Hjetland sings a Finnish traditional song.

      Like Peter Uhrbrand, Tove de Fries is a fiddler from Fanø. With guitarist Klaus Ravnsborg, bassist Peter Sejersen and two others she formed the instrumental band Baltinget in 1992. Nowadays the other two members are accordionist Jesper Vinther Petersen and Jesper Falch, who are both also members of Phønix and were previously in Dug. Baltinget’s fourth album, Alive, was recorded in Tove’s pretty home village of Sønderho on the island of Fanø, where traditional music and dance continued through the thin times into today’s revival; the first half in the studio, the second at a gig.
      Their playing is springily danceable, in tunes either found in old fiddlers’ manuscripts or learned from elder fiddlers including a Sønderhoning from Peter Uhrbrand. Many have much in common, in melodic components and rhythm, with dance tunes played in England over the last couple of centuries. For example Hoftur, a dance tune from Thy, is akin to a morris tune, and the two reels comprising Reel I F Og A, from an 1869 collection, are strongly reminiscent of Northumbrian hornpipes.

      www.tutl.com, www.gofolk.dk


© 2009 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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