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Written in fRoots issue 217, 2001
 

NILS ØKLAND
Straum
Rune Grammofon RCD2015 (2000)

It’s surprising that it’s been done so little before. To present the almost minimalist, subtle and - to ears accustomed to the jollity, grossness or brutality of much of the music that fights its way through to mainstream consciousness - quite strange music of the Hardanger fiddle, in a minimalist, subtle package. Actually this album’s Digipak is so minimalist in design - Nils Økland’s name and the title in magnifying-glass 6-point or less on a matt grey-blue ground bearing only single splodges of black and white - that it makes the works of ECM, under whose wing the Norwegian Rune Grammofon label now shelters, look gross by comparison.
      Økland is a well-regarded player of hardingfele and ordinary fiddle, former musical director at the Ole Bull Academy. He appeared solo in London in 2000, sharing a Purcell Room concert with rather different label-mates Supersilent.
      While imbued with the feel and tradition of Norwegian music, the material on Straum is no succession of one tune after another. In a work of spaciousness and reflectiveness, but not spineless enough to be regarded as ambient, obvious enough to be new age nor repetitive enough to be trance, in company variously with trumpet, guitar (these from his brother Torbjørn), Sigbjørn Åpeland’s piano, harmonium or organ, Pål Thorstensen’s double bass and Åsne Valland Nordli’s voice, and contributions from traditional singer Berit Opheim, hardingfele player Ole Henrik Moe and cimbalom player Laszlo Racz, he delivers a drifting set of his own compositions, from whispering natural-scale hardingfele harmonics through regal airs on normal violin reminiscent of those of Susanne Lundeng to extreme contrasts with the sudden thunder of church organ.
      On the whole, A Good Thing, but as an album Straum is like a nouvelle cuisine meal; a series of exquisite moments presented with extreme elegance, striking but...


© 2001 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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