Fiol

“Refractio” is a project that generates a dialogue between the performance of a work and an improvisation in response. Just as light transforms its appearance when it changes medium, the musical work is also diluted within the improvisation, which in a certain way deconstructs what the listener has just heard and builds it up again using a contemporary language.

Maria Kalaniemi & Timo Alakotila - Akero (2011) {Akero Records AKEROCD011}
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© 2011 Åkerö Records | ÅKERÖCD011
Folk / Nordic Folk / Finland

Though Finnish master musicians Maria Kalaniemi and Timo Alakotila both play in many bands, something remarkable happens when they strip the music down to duets. The chemistry between the two emerges, creating a sound that is incredibly warm and intimate. On Åkerö — their first album as a duo since 2001’s Ambra — Kalaniemi (free-bass, five-row, button accordion) and Alakotila (pianist best known for his work with JPP) play like one musician. Their intricate arrangements showcase a wide dynamic range, from bold climaxes to subtle pauses. There’s probably no better example of this than the title track. It opens the album with the accordion playing both melody and counter melody as Alakotila’s piano enters almost imperceptibly, slowly growing in intensity. The music crescendos and decrescendos, continually and dramatically changing direction but always returning to the anchor of the opening melodies — all in a stunning five minutes.

POP Ryktet om country är aningen överdrivet. Per Gessle lät de facto minst lika mycket country i ”Timmar av iver” eller ”Tända en sticka till” på sitt självbetitlade första soloalbum 1983 som i någon av de här åtta Nashville-inspelade låtarna.

Väsen - Gront (1999) {Westpark music 87075}
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© 1999, 2000 Westpark music / Xource Records | 87075
Folk / Nordic Folk / Sweden / Acoustic

Swedish folk band Vasen mix the haunting, lonely sounds of their country's traditional music with a modern sense of humor and a strong melodic assurance. Gront maintains the high levels of energy and musicianship the band has established on its previous recordings, while taking more unorthodox approaches to their arrangements. Traditionalists might find their music a bit watered-down in terms of faithful authenticity, but most others will find it enjoyable and accessible.

Having an utommusical starting point is often grateful for creativity when composing. On this album, Erik Dahl has taken inspiration from Ursula Le Guins the left hand of darkness, a 1969 science fiction classic. A feminist novel that, among other things, puts our perceptions of the sexes on end. Highly topical yet to the highest degree and if these themes are heard in the music you can have different perceptions of. But undoubtedly, it is a narrative and image-creating music that flows forward where the listener can associate freely. A lot of the songs move in a kind of dreamy landscape, dynamically certainly where the music moves between empathy and utlevel, with tensions between harmonious and disharmonious. The ensemble consists of six musicians on Viola / Viola, clarinet and bass clarinet, saxophones, piano, double bass and drums and percussion.