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Written in Folk Roots issue 184, 1998

OLOV JOHANSSON
Storsvarten
Drone DROCD 011 (1998)

TILJA
Tilja
Amigo AMCD 734 (1997)

Players of nyckelharpa, the Swedish sympathetic-stringed keyed fiddle in which bowed strings are stopped against wooden tangents like a hand-bowed hurdy-gurdy, had dwindled to a handful earlier this century. Now there are thousands, many following the example of Olov Johansson, Väsen’s ace nyckelharpa player, and earlier Erik Sahlström, both of them from the Uppland, where the instrument survived when it had disappeared elsewhere.
      Storsvarten is Johansson’s solo album, a set including polskas, polkett, waltzes, schottische, march, gånglåt and skänklåt, both traditional and his own compositions, which are becoming part of the swelling tradition, plus a favourite Sahlström number. He uses two types of nyckelharpa, the three-row chromatic form developed earlier this century and one of several older forms, simpler and rawer-sounding but still capable of subtle technique, the kontrabasharpa.
      It’s mainly absolutely solo - a nyckelharpa makes a very full, silvery sound - but on a few items he’s also accompanied by the viola and 12-string guitar or octave mandolin of Mikael Marin and Roger Tallroth of Väsen, or Trio Con X’s Anders Bromander’s piano or organ, and the final track, the chunky, twisted-Baroque Svampmannen, features Nordman colleagues Mats Olofsson and Claudia Müller on cello and flute.

      Fiddlers are finding that a nyckelharpa blends well and enriches a group’s sound. Tilja is an able, airy-sounding young trio: fiddlers Karin Olsson from Värmland (already awarded the title Riksspelman) and Jeanett Walerholt from Småland with nyckelharpa player Pernilla Karlsson from Bohuslän. They take turns playing lead, the other two playing harmony or rhythmic chords, in a varied set of traditional tunes from several regions, with one Olsson composition and two from Walerholt.


© 1998 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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