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Written in fRoots issue 263, 2005
 

NILS ØKLAND
Bris
Rune Grammofon RCD 2042 (2004)

Nils Økland seems to be succeeding in bringing to realms of fashionable cool the hardanger fiddle (hardingfele), the prettily acanthus-calligraphed small and iconically Norwegian fiddle with a short flattish neck and ringing sympathetic strings. Not just here in the UK but even among the often fiddle-allergic Norwegian press.
      Taking what was pretty obviously the way to go - make a strong statement of the Nordic minimalism of its music - he’s made sparse, atmospheric albums packaged in Rune Grammofon’s tiny-writing, minimalist Digipak design, and performed in contexts that would reach a non-fiddle audience and surprise by contrast, bringing folk-rooted minimalism into the sphere of classical music including a recent QEH performance with the BBC Concert Orchestra and working with jazz pianist Christian Wallumrød and with Supersilent.
      Checking back, I find I compared his previous album Straum to nouvelle cuisine. This new one, Bris, on which he plays hardingfele, violin, viola and viola d’amore, invites the same comparison. But Økland is a skilled, versatile player, as his work on other musicians’ projects testifies, and his solo work is a reflective exploration of traditional modes, the textures of the instruments and silence. The first four tracks are extremes of minimalism, courting comments of “has it started yet?” But make ’em wait, create a cone of silence, set up the ears for each new sound. Track five is the slow-pulsing, harmonium-chorded, bridal-march-like Blond Blå. Later he’s joined by rumbling, slapping percussion and touches of double bass, when the sound broadens and deepens with occasional shocks, and while there are rhythm pick-ups any dance done to this music would be trance-like, slow-wheeling, intense and disturbed. There’s an attractive mysterious, whispery abrasiveness to it all that with overcomes first-listen suspicions of vacuousness and grows in appeal and menace.
      For many in his audience Økland is a first encounter with the hardingfele. They’re understandably impressed or intrigued, but, as Økland himself would doubtless point out, he’s but one of many fine players, and he’s not alone in his minimalism. Solo playing, just with the woody thump of the fiddler’s foot-tap, is the core of the tradition, and there are plenty of albums of solo hardingfele, collections of up to forty tunes in a row; great repositories of tunes, styles and stories, but not really made for listening to all in one chunk (though if one does it’s possible to reach a rather refreshing kind of Norwegian state of altered consciousness)
      All the leading players are masters of the solo art, but some broaden into wider instrumentation, often ranging more widely than Økland, making music ranging in sound from stark to rich and lush through powerful and strange. Håkon Høgemo’s work, solo and in Utla and other Karl Seglem projects including 2004’s Femstein CD, brings out the instrument’s hypnotic pulse. Annbjørg Lien has made a string of gorgeously melodic, richly arranged albums of her own and with Bukkene Bruse. Liv Merete Kroken and Sigrid Moldestad’s 2001 album Spindel is a lesser-known jewel, and the recent Free Field CD from Hallvard T. Bjørgum, consisting of collaborations with Eric Andersen, Garth Hudson, Jonas Fjeld, Kirsten Bråten Berg, kemanche player Elshan Mansurov and others, is a voyage of hardingfele connections.
      Then there’s Knut and Hauk Buen, Vidar Lande, Knut Hamre, Arne M. Sølvberg, Lars Underdal, Synnove S. Bjørset, Jan Beitohaugen Granli, Sigmund Eikås, Åse Teigland, Sturla Eide Sundli… I could go on. All of these have recorded, and there are plenty of archive recordings too. If the silvery magic of the hardingfele attracts, I’d encourage plunging in.
      And then there are all the great Norwegian fiddlers who use “ordinary” fiddle (known as vanleg fele or flatfele): Susanne Lundeng, Per Sæmund Bjørkum, Majorstuen, Mari Eggen and Helene Høye… don’t get me started.

      And here’s some excellent news: you can now hear the world’s largest collection of Norwegian traditional music recordings streaming continuously 24/7 on Norwegian Radio’s new Internet and DAB station NRK Alltid Folkemusikk. Programmed by extremely knowledgeable NRK producer and fiddler Leiv Solberg, who was a key person in the making of NRK/BBC4’s recent spot-on TV documentary on the hardingfele, it has no presenters, but flashes up what’s playing and next, with sleeve pics. Find it via www.nrk.no.


© 2005 Andrew Cronshaw



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