root salad Folk’Avant
There’s space and spark in the music of this Swedish-Finnish trio, discovers Chris Nickson.
hree voices, a violin, and a kantele. It might seem like a very sparse line-up for a group, but together the three members of Folk’Avant manage to weave a sense of time breath- lessly suspended in their songs. The Swedish-Finnish trio released their debut, Gryningsland, earlier this year – although it’s an album that’s been quite a while in the making.
T
“We all met at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2013,” explains singer Anna Wikenius. “I played with them at my final concert. I’d composed music for bass and saxophone, but I thought it would work this way. They brought their ideas and the way the concert went made us realise we wanted to do more together.”
All three members work in other ensembles – kantele player Maija Kauhanen works with Estonian singer Mari Kalkun, amongst others, violinist Anna Rubinsztein is in the classical field, while Wikenius is involved in other vocal groups.
“For me, Folk’Avant is like a musical bubble to step into and do something dif- ferent,” Wikenius says. “This is playful and it feels easy. Someone will bring a song and everybody contributes.”
It’s also been a series of discoveries. Wikenius had never heard the kantele before meeting Kauhanen. “In Finland, it’s never a chordal instrument, it plays the melodies” she observes. “We use it differ- ently. The Swedish and Finnish traditions are close, but there are still differences. We’re all deeply rooted in our own traditions, but we know there are also other influences. Lyrically, we’ve all sung the old songs, but you have to put yourself in there, too. We found a way in the end to make it all work.”
In fact it’s worked so well since the first moment that the three pieces they per- formed on their first outing are on the CD, with the title track and Ljusmontör much the way they began. The third, Wikenius notes, changed quite a bit between compo- sition and performance.
Given that happened four years ago, why so long to record an entire album?
“We wanted to let the project take time,” Wikenius replies. “There’s no point in things being rushed. We came together here and there, worked and developed things.”
Sometimes slow can be exactly the right
way. There’s a great deal of thinking and lis- tening behind the music, the three musi- cians sparking and working off each other, the rounding off the edges and polishing until the finished product sounds carefully
worked, yet still has the fire of spontaneity. Things didn’t always go smoothly, however.
“When we were coming up to record, I realised I hadn’t checked on copyright for some lyrics taken from a Swedish poet, Nils Ferlin, who also inspired my writing for Ljus- montör. Luckily, his estate agreed. Another song, Instagram, was an experiment by a poet who used quotes and put them on Instagram. He wouldn’t let us use them, so the night before we went in the studio I was busy writing new words!”
he sessions lasted four days in October 2016 at a studio in Gothenburg, in Sweden. “We wanted to choose a place with the right feel. The kantele and violin are both sensitive, so we needed a good sound. And producer Carl-John Groth provided the per- fect support.”
T What they achieved is something deli-
cate yet sturdy, very subtle and quiet, but those qualities allow the beauty in the music shine through.
“It’s like a tide,” Wikenius observes.
“We’ve all searched for this bubble, for a sound, a musical language that’s not like so much today. Music today tends to be so loud! By taking time and being softer, we can let the music make small changes. And we trust in the listener. The group is a way of community and discovery. Not many bands mix the Finnish and Swedish tradi- tions (Jag Minns uses an original arrange-
ment of a traditional Finnish lyric), and there’s hardly anyone mixing violin and kan- tele this way.”
The joy lies in the blend of voices and the way the instruments give colour and texture to each song. Nothing’s overplayed; there’s always a sense of things pared back and allowed to breathe. It’s already found fans in Germany, where Gryningsland has been nominated for a German Critics award as the best folk debut (and, ironically, it’s in competition with Kauhanen’s solo release).
“We have some things going on for the future,” Wikenius says of the band’s plans. “We’re working on a tour of Germany for next year, and we’d like to travel elsewhere, too. I think what we’ve done with Folk’Avant is create a platform for this music we make.”
It’s very personal music that feels as if it comes from deep inside, a thoroughly organic mix of voices and strings. Yet it also communicates well, with the sort of time- lessness that leaves the heart beating slower and the spirit renewed. It’s quiet music from the wild places, something that seems more at home in the woods or by a river than in the heart of a city, where noise and distrac- tion abound. The very nature of it pulls in the listener.
It’s ineffably Nordic – there’s nothing of the sultry Mediterranean in this sound. It’s as cool and inviting as a stream on a sunny day. F
www.folkavant.com 19 f
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