VARIOUS ARTISTS
Folksamling
Amigo AMCD 724

GROUPA/LENA WILLEMARK
Månskratt
Amigo AMLP 725

KAPELL FRISELL
Kapell Frisell
Filur FILUR 1

MÖLLER, WILLEMARK & GUDMUNDSON
Frifot
Caprice CAP 21383

ARNE M.SOLVBERG & OYVIND LYSLO
Syngande Strenger
Heilo HCD 7062

Folksamling is a 25-track sampler of releases on Amigo, a label which deals with much of the tradition-derived music happening in Sweden; it covers recordings made in the period 1977-89. Perhaps it's programmed to give cohesion, but there aren't many strong contrasts as track follows track, though in fact there's quite a wide range of styles and instrumentation represented overall, and performances by very many of the well-known Swedish traditional and revival musicians, except the folk-rockers, many of whom appear, together with some of the present cast, on MNW's multi-label 2-CD compilation Årsringar, which has some Amigo tracks, including two by Groupa. Folksamling has three of the band's tracks, but was put together before the release of Månskratt, which is characterised by wild vocals from Lena Willemark, with Hållbus Totte Mattsson's driving acoustic guitars and Arabic-sounding lute, Mats Edén's often traditional-style fiddling or melodeon and Hylén's cornet or Simonson's alto flute, all underpinned by hefty rhythmic interplay between Tina Johansson and Gustav Hylén's percussion, Rickard Åström's rhythm programming, Bill McChesney's bass clarinet and Jonas Simonson's bass sax. Full of fire and melody, it's a very definite statement, building on the foundations for development jointly evolved by Groupa and the late Filarfolket - the sound of a revival growing up and reaching out; a living tradition of new Swedish music.

The presence of producer/engineer Sven Park (like that of Ale Möller - see below) is one notable feature of much that's progressing in Swedish roots music; another is that there's a good deal of overlap between the personnel of the bands. In the band Kapell Frisell, recorded for Park's own label, Filur, Filarfolket's Thomas Ringdahl on soprano sax with Groupa's bass saxist and flute player Jonas Simonson join Filarfolket fiddler Ellika Frisell in a set of tunes, about half of them polskas, including some involving guest fiddler Gustav Päkkos from Bingsjö in Dalarna. It's a lighter sound than that of Filarfolket, Groupa, or the Bröderna Blås Folksax project in which Ringdahl and Simonson were involved.

Occasionally one gets the feeling that no roots band in Sweden will begin recording until Ale Möller shows up, either to play or to produce. Here he is, with Möller, Willemark & Gudmundson. All three musicians on Frifot feature on Folksamling, in various line-ups. Their collaboration has energy and authority. The overall sound of the 18-track CD is of commanding vocals, fiddle and mandola in the unsettling triple-time rhythms of polska, as well as the more mainstream fours of schottische & polka. Lena Willemark does most of singing, & plays fiddle & whistle. Per Gudmundson, one of the best-known of Swedish fiddlers, also plays bagpipes on some tracks. In addition to his mandola and whistles (including a smart solo rendition of a halling on the hole-less, and strictly seasonal, sallow bark whistle), Möller contributes hackbräde (hammered dulcimer) which, like the bagpipes, is an instrument once widely used in Swedish folk music, but neglected of late.

Arne M.Solvberg (fiddle & hardanger fiddle) and Oyvind Lyslo (classical guitar) aren't part of the Swedish scene. They're Norwegian, and their music's substantially different from any of the foregoing, but it's anything but "difficult", as hardingfele music is often considered to be. The 26 track CD Syngande Strenger (singing strings) is full of well-played, interesting and varied tunes: wedding marches, reinlenders, a polka, a mazurka, waltzes, hallings, springars, a psalm tune, song tunes, 2 guitar solos, a Lyslo composition, and six by Solvberg including one for King Olav's 80th birthday celebration and a suite commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the liberation. The album arrived in Britain for review via a chance meeting between the musicians and one of the Folk Roots staff on a plane. Heilo, the record company, hadn't made any particular plans for its distribution over here, but it should.

© 1992 Andrew Cronshaw