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Written in Folk Roots issue 175/176, 1998

BJÖRN STÅBI
Orsalåtar
GIGA GCD-35 (1997)

KALLE ALMLÖF
Lejsmelåtar
GIGA GCD-30 (1997)

SIMON SIMONSSON, OLLE SIMONSSON, KJELL-ERIK ERIKSSON
Drängkammarlåtar
GIGA GCD-32 (1996)

PERJOS LARS HALVARSSON & MATTIAS HELJE
Perjos Lars Halvarsson Och Mattias Helje
GIGA GCD-34 (1997)

Reading the booklet notes (which are in English as well as Swedish) to GIGA albums is an education, not just in Swedish fiddle styles and traditions, the stories to the tunes and the network of influences between players, but also in the wider lives of the fiddlers.
      Skill as a craftsman or artist seems to be a widely shared characteristic. Björn Ståbi is both fiddler and painter by profession. On Orsalåtar he plays a stream-of-consciousness set of 32 tunes that came into his head in the course of the recordings - as he says, “It turned out to be a journey through my life. Many fiddlers joined in the march past, both those that I’ve played with and older fiddlers that I’ve only heard about ... I could have made another record almost exactly like it with 32 other tunes - the music of Orsa is so immensely rich in original melodies”.
      Yes, I dare say that a whole album of solo fiddle isn’t perhaps everyone’s idea of easy listening, and indeed even live one would rarely listen to a solo fiddler that long without a break, but they haven’t made the CD yet that’ll chop wood, cook a meal or pass round the drinks. One can either dip into these albums, or just run them in the background and let the tunes and turns soak in, snatches lodge in corners of the brain.
      There’s nothing essentially “difficult” for the listener here; these are recent recordings of contemporary fiddlers in their prime.
      During the upsurge in interest in Swedish fiddling Kalle Almlöf has been a major turner-up of tunes that weren’t getting played, often in projects together with Anders Rosén. He has frequently played with Björn Ståbi, too. A major influence on him has been the music passed down from the Malung fiddler Lejsme Per Larsson, who died in 1907, and whose motto was apparently “clean playing and clean windows!” On the solo Lejsmelåtar Almlöf continues that tradition (on a fiddle he made himself - another fiddling craftsman) - the clean style and the music passed down via Larsson.
      On Drängkammarlåtar Simon Simonsson and Hoven Droven fiddler Kjell-Erik Eriksson, with Simon’s brother Olle on chord-zither and guitar and occasional third fiddle, commit to CD the spirit of a session at Simon’s cottage in Orsa playing mostly relatively modern tunes - from this century, anyway - which they’ve picked up here and there rather than particularly drawn from one regional tradition, though much of Simon’s repertoire comes from Älvdalen or Offerdal.
      Both Perjos Lars Halvarsson and Mattias Helje are blacksmiths, neighbours in the Dalarna parish of Lima which is noted for its scythe-making and production of Olympic skiers. Perjos Lars comes from a fiddling background, but it was a learning session with Kalle Almlöf that spurred him on, leading to more learning from such as Björn Ståbi, and among his main influences he cites Simon Simonsson. For Mattias the turning-point was a visit to his school by Magnus and Ola Bäckström - see, these things can make a difference. Together, Halvarsson and Helje play tunes from north-west Dalarna and the neighbouring Norwegian region of Østerdalen.


© 1997 Andrew Cronshaw



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