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Written in Folk Roots issue 141, 1995

OLA BÄCKSTRÖM
Ola Bäckström
Giga GCD 21 (1994)

RÄTTVIKS SPELMANSLAG
50 år
Giga GCD 26

Mats Hellberg’s Giga label is a reliable source of well-made albums by the leading contemporary Swedish traditional fiddlers; last year’s releases included a solo album from Frifot’s Per Gudmundson (one of the founders of the label), Lars Hökpers & Mats Arnberg’s set celebrating the music of the Tillman family, and Mats Berglund’s Värmland-Norwegian border music.

      Ola Bäckström, from Ore in eastern Dalarna, brother of Falun Festival director Magnus, has recently replaced Ellika Frisell in Den Fule, and his association with the development of the new Swedish music goes way back.
      Central to much Scandinavian fiddling is solo playing, in whose flexibility of rhythm and phrasing the individual personality is both bound up and expressed; of the 22 tracks here, 9 are solo, while the rest are duets and ensembles in which his fiddle, (and occasional bouzouki or guitar) are joined by some long-time associates - Hedningarna’s Björn Tollin, (who has single-handedly, so to speak, promoted the tambourine to the role of a full percussion kit), Carina Normansson and Hans Röjås (fiddles), and Stefan Ekedahl (bagpipes and cello). Many of the tunes are from the Ore area, and, as he says in the notes, in principle so are the nine of his own compositions, but these latter naturally reflect the influences on a modern musician, for example that of Balkan music, and a schottische called Se på TV (“Watching TV”).

      Massed fiddles inevitably obscure individuality, but large groups like Rättviks Spelmanslag have other functions, reaching across the generations and communicating material and technique. The fiddle club based in the Dalarna town of Rättvik, scene of an annual folk music festival, has had considerable influence during the 50 years of its existence, playing for radio and touring abroad. In this anniversary release, recorded in a day at the parish hall with 49 players, the wide, light sound is slimmed down periodically to include small ensembles, duets and solo items featuring such fine individual fiddlers as Sparf Anders and Per Gudmundson, and the album ends with a song.


© 1994 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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