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Written in Folk Roots issue 158/159, 1996
FARMERS MARKET
Speed/Balkan/Boogie
Kirkelig Kulturverksted FXCD 148 (1995)
A rough reference point in terms of approach might be the wild wit and storming
energy of Shooglenifty, but Farmers Market plays, as the title says, speed
Balkan boogie, with occasional sly Norwegian traditional references, and
features on this gig at Molde Jazz Festival two singers from Le Mystère Des Voix
Bulgares.
There are a couple of members shared with another
great Norwegian band, the Frode Fjellheim Jazz Joik Ensemble, here - reeds
player Håvard Lund and guitarist-singer Nils Olav Johansen (at one point here
contributing the distinctive joik/throat-singing/gadulka-like vocalising that is
such a feature of the FFJJ Ensemble) - together with dazzling accordionist Stian
Carstensen, fine kaval player Borislav Zgourovsky and the aching, sobbing sound
of Georgi Andréev’s gadulka, on top of a driving rhythm section, and amongst it
all Sonia Iovkova and Vessilina Illieva’s hard-edged duet vocals. It’s a
well-varied show, not all speed, with space for the voices, kaval and gadulka to
soar and keen. (The Molde set was a special event, but at Norrsken the current
gigging band, a five-piece of Johansen, Carstensen, Trifon Trifonov and the same
rhythm section of Finn Guttormsen and Jarle Vespestad, blew a storm too.)
This isn’t a bunch of Norwegians trying to be
Balkan, or “knocking the dust off those old tunes” - it’s musicians of
understanding and skill playing wild music, throwing around influences and
ideas, giving an audience a hell of a time, and bouncing off the plastic in an
excellent, upfront recording.
© 1996
Andrew Cronshaw
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