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Written in fRoots issue 381, March 2015

SUDAN DUDAN
Inntil I Dag
Ta:lik TA100CD (2013)

This first arrived for review among a small deluge of Norwegian releases, and so I dealt with it briefly. Now it has come up again, and I realise I didn’t do it justice, and it deserves more.
     Sudan Dudan is the duo of Marit Karlberg and Anders Erik Røine. She sings and plays langeleik, Norway’s version of the European fretted zither, a long swelling-sided rectangular box with wooden frets. He sings and plays guitar in a style he’s evolved, often sounding almost African in approach, that beautifully suits the delicate subtleties of Norwegian traditional song and dance music.
     Everything meshes wonderfully – their two voices, in which hers, unforced, lightly husky, floating with a sense of available strength, generally takes the lead while his tracks finely in harmony, and the two instruments, the thin high strings of the langeleik and the deeper finger-picked guitar – in traditional songs to which they bring a unique new arranging light. 
     Added tonal richness comes from Roine’s jew’s-harp, another Norwegian traditional instrument, and on some tracks it’s further expanded by top players, mainly producer Odd Nordstoga’s accordian, organ or electric guitar, Daniel Sanden-Warg’s fiddle and Gjermund Silseth’s or Audun Erlien’s bass.
     A gem that deserves to break through far beyond Norway.
     It’s easily available in the UK, via www.discovery-records.com

© 2015 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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