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Written in fRoots issue 253, 2004
 

SUSANNE LUNDENG
Forunderlig Ferd
Kirkelig Kulturverksted FXCD 277 (2004)

In the fiddle-rich traditions of Norway and Sweden, there are plenty of CDs released of excellent fiddling and fine tunes, forming an archive of ongoing tradition. Susanne Lundeng, whose home is in the Lofoten Islands off Norway’s north-west coast, is up there with the greatest, and her music springs from tradition and its extension in her own composition. Her CDs, though, are not mere expositions of tunes, style or skill but very varied music full of invention, taking full advantage of the recording medium. They’re not fiddle albums but music albums.
      For this one, her band comprises Bjørn Andor Drage on piano, synth and harmonium, Håvar Bendiksen on electric and acoustic guitars and accordion, drummer and percussionist Arnfinn Bergrabb and double bassist Knut Erik Sundquist. Here we get the two poles of her music, from serene beauty in the stately, soaring wedding marches of which she is a prime exponent - typified this time by the exquisite Brurmarsj Fra Sørfold - to the stamping and stalking physical energy she brings to polsdans and other dance tunes. There’s the quirkiness and hinted humour of her own compositions such as the lurching, time-twisting, drum-clattering, accordion extemporising of Duve Duve or the floating spaciousness of En Alvorsprat, and, as on earlier albums, occasional songs: the title track and traditional Herr Ole, where her singing matches the quality of her fiddle tone.


© 2004 Andrew Cronshaw


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