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Written in fRoots issue 302/303, 2008
 

SOFIA KARLSSON
Visor Från Vinden
Amigo AMCD 759 (2007)

Sofia Karlsson brought a new dimension to Groupa with her vocals around the turn of the millennium, and made two albums with them. Since then, in her three solo albums including this one, she’s moved into an interesting territory, picking intelligent, substantial lyrics and melodies from Swedish and other writers and sometimes from tradition, translating where necessary, and working with the finest acoustic musicians, be they from the folk music world or outside it.
      Here the team includes Esbjörn Hazelius on guitar and cittern, guitarist Roger Tallroth and double bassist Olle Linder, joined variously by dobro, fiddle and a particularly gorgeous piece of bass clarinet playing by Nils Berg to Sofie Livebrandt’s piano on Boris Vian and Hal Berg’s Jag Står Här På Ett Torg. Livebrandt also wrote the tunes for the opening and closing tracks, both settings of Baudelaire texts.
      Karlsson’s voice floats lightly, prettily even, but it’s underpinned by strength and suppressed power. The impeccable arrangements allow it plenty of space and, as with Norway’s Kari Bremnes and England’s June Tabor, one is drawn into the words, even though they’re in Swedish. Don’t be put off by that; it’s enough to inspire a person to learn her language, and the album so compels repeated listens that it would probably get you further than a teach yourself book.
      Balladen Om Briggen “Blue Bird” Av Hull (and it mentions Middlesbrough too) about a disaster at sea, written in the 1950s by famous Swedish songwriter Evert Taube, is an in-concert recording that’s as beautifully produced as the rest of the album. Resan Till Österlandet, a traditional song with an added Karlsson verse, is performed by a finely-matched acapella trio with Sara Isaksson and Lena Willemark. Karlsson is a flautist, too, and joins Hazelius, Tallroth and Linder for an instrumental, Hazelius’s Valsen Til Mig.
      The flow is perfectly judged, and as the Baudelaire/Livebrandt closer Moesta Et Errabunda dies away the album leaves a silence richer than when it began.

      www.sofiakarlsson.com, www.myspace.com/sofiakarlsson


© 2008 Andrew Cronshaw



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