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Written in fRoots issue 211/212, 2001
 

SUSANNE LUNDENG
Vals Till Den Røde Fela
Kirkelig Kulturverksted FXCD 226 (2000)

Let’s face it, many albums by fiddlers, however fine their playing and material, aren’t the sort of thing even another fiddler listens to in one sitting; they’re a resource, evidence, a collection. But a few treat the album as not a loose-leaf book of tunes but as a work in itself.
      The debut CD in 1991 by north Norwegian fiddler Susanne Lundeng was of the first, collected tunes type, but her second and third, Drag and Ættesyn, are shapely mixes of beautiful slow tunes, played with great rich tone, and raw hypnotic dance tunes played with demonic energy and all the harshness of tone they demand.
      Her quirkily dynamic onstage presence finally made it to Britain in early 2000 as part of Folkworks’ “Fiddles on Fire” tour, and now here’s a new album, with a similar approach to two and three but this time featuring entirely her own compositions, which are replete with the depth of tradition while as before featuring of a non-traditional lineup of excellent accompanying musicians, this time harmonium, organ, synth and piano player Bjørn Andor Drage, Håvar Bendiksen on acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and accordion, and percussionist Finn Sletten.
      It’s a varied journey through bright light and airy space, from the wild silvery droning of the solo I Et Skrin, through the screaming rockiness of Marmor II or Utaførr Skapet, the misty vocal of Marmor I, the clangorously shuffling stop-start Rufsetufsa, the relentless bowing in a wide “Lark Ascending” sort of spaciousness of Rød Halling, to the pure peaceful grace of the soaring airs with the feel of bridal marches, such as the opening Lønde or the title track. Indeed, there is an almost Vaughan Williams like feel for heart-raising melody in her music, coupled with Norwegian tradition’s exquisite tension between astringency and head-banging passion.


© 2000 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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