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Written in Folk Roots issue 163/164, 1997

ANNBJØRG LIEN
Prisme
Grappa GRCD 4113 (1996)

There’s been relatively little recorded work released in the past few months from Norway’s rich roots music scene, but this new Annbjørg Lien album would stand out even in a glut.
      The live energy of her playing didn’t surface as often as perhaps expected on her previous album, Felefeber, but this time it takes a grip.
      One of the most distinctive and appealing aspects of Norwegian roots music is the light and air in it. Even when the instrumental sound is rich and complex, indeed luxurious, as it is here, much of the action is up there among the high, silvery frequencies and the crisp, dipping turns and multi-string bowing, and the music dances and surges free from any down-pinning bass and chords structure.
      Annbjørg’s Hardanger fiddle and nyckelharpa are beautifully integrated with the guitars, Swedish bouzouki and octave mandolin of Väsen’s Roger Tallroth and the work of arranger and keyboardist Bjørn Ole Rasch, Väsen viola-player Mikael Marin, Hans Fredrik Jacobsen on overtone and other flutes and bagpipe, and Rune Arnesen delivering the wide-thinking, inventive percussion, sensitive yet powerful, that is becoming a trademark of much new Nordic music.
      This is the first Lien album in which the majority of the tunes are her own compositions, alone or in conjunction with Bjørn Ole Rasch (the final track Ringen is a musical engagement ring between them, incidentally). In this creation of strong new material that flows from experience and technical ability in the living Norwegian fiddle tradition she’s continuing that tradition, which is always essentially open-ended and which lives precisely because it can incorporate contemporary references, like tributaries to a great river.


© 1997 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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