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Written in fRoots issue 213, 2000
 

OLE HJORTH & SVEN AHLBÄCK
Arabiskan
Giga GCD-44 (2000)

OLLE MORAEUS & NICKE GÖTHE
Orsa-ljodr
Giga GCD-51 (2000)

PERS HANS OLSSON WITH LEIF GÖRAS, STIG IVARS & PER GUDMUNDSON
Rågången
Giga GCD-50 (2000)

HARV
Must
Amigo AMCD744 (2000)

If any should doubt the remarkableness and differentness of Swedish fiddling, let them just listen to the masterly Ole Hjorth and Sven Ahlbäck on Arabiskan taking turns playing lead and second fiddle, their rich woody tones surging, pausing, twisting, turning and tumbling. This is music and playing that is not only functional accompaniment for Sweden’s rhythmically fascinating, subtle and expressive couple dancing but bears comparison with Bartók’s Hungarian tradition derived violin duets and deserves the same high regard.

      Fiddle duetting figures strongly in Swedish tradition, as a conversation between masters or sometimes as an exploring dialogue between teacher and pupil. Famous Orsa fiddler Gössa Anders’ daughter Gössa Anna (1906-1999) used to play second parts to her father’s lead in the distinctive Orsa repertoire of polskas. On Orsa-ljodr two of today’s Orsa fiddlers, Olle Moraeus and Nicke Göthe, deliver, amongst other Orsa tunes, some of those duets, using Anna’s parts learnt by Göthe from recordings. Actually this duo themselves have been in recent decades at least as familiar to the Swedish public as were Anders and Anna, as members of Orsa Spelmän, the well-known fiddle group that often includes Abba’s Benny Andersson as its accordionist.

      Rågången is a set of duets between another highly-regarded fiddler, Pers Hans Olsson, and three of his peers from his native Rättvik, including Frifot’s Per Gudmundson. There’s less of the extreme rhythmic stretching of polska here, though there are fourteen of them in the twenty-four tracks; the rest are in the more regular rhythms of gånglåt, waltz, skänklåt and march, and there’s a stately, elegant feel to the album.

      Impressive and hypnotic to watch live, Harv, the young duo of Magnus Stinnerbom and Daniel Sandén-Warg, primarily use what they call “harvfiol” and “hurvfiol”, deep-toned nine and ten stringed descendants of the viola d’amore, close kin to the other resonating-stringed instruments played some other present-day Swedish musicians which have been called “stakefiol” and “låtfiol”. Stinnerbom also uses willow harmonic flute and viola, and Sandén-Warg jew’s-harp, ordinary fiddle and moraharpa, the old form of nyckelharpa reconstructed by Anders Norudde. While their repertoire is essentially traditional in subject matter, in approaching it their sound and style is closer to the swinging rasp of Väsen and Hedningarna than to the fiddle duetting on the other albums in this review, and indeed they’re joined on some tracks of Must, their second album, by Väsen guitarist Roger Tallroth and Hedningarna percussionist Björn Tollin.


© 2000 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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