f48 Fjordland Fjestival
Førde International Folk Music Festival is one of Andrew Cronshaw’s favourites, so he seized the opportunity to take notepad and camera again.
A
bunch of tents in a field is all very well, but I have to admit I tend to feel confined, and per- haps tired and weatherbeaten. I reckon my ideal festival
would have great, varied music, both local and international, including big new pro- jects, all day and evening, spread across a wide variety of indoor and outdoor venues, in lovely scenery, unmolested by the thudding of another stage nearby, some with big production values, some intimate and unamplified, all with good lis- tening conditions, attentive audiences, comfort for musicians and audience and plenty of chance for them to mingle.
A big ask? Let me tell you about Førde International Folk Music Festival. It’s in July, in and around the Norwegian town of Førde, in the fjordland region Sogn og Fjor- dane. I’ve been several times, reviewed it back in 2006, played there once, and some- times, as this year, arrived via a spectacular road and water trip north from Bergen.
Nordic Sound Folk Orchestra
It’s significant, I think, that the festival is titled ‘international folk music’ rather than ‘world music’. I have no problem with the latter term, which has created a milieu for interaction that didn’t exist before, but Førde, directed by Hilde Bjørkum, herself a dancer and fiddler, is equally focused on Norwegian, and indeed local, music and dance. It encourages the richness of the area’s traditional music and its musicians by not just booking them but commissioning them and giving them the resources to cre- ate and develop often large-scale projects.
This year’s biggest commission was the opening concert, for which was formed the Nordic Sound Folk Orchestra. A full orches- tra of 40 leading folk instrumentalists and sing ers drawn from across Norden, direct- ed by Karl-Johan Ankarblom, performed a glorious suite of new compositions com- missioned from Norway’s Jorun Marie Kvernberg, Finland’s Antti Järvelä, Den- mark’s Harald Haugaard and Sweden’s Mia Marin. It included the likes of Lena Wille-
mark, Ulla Pirttijärvi-Länsman, Olov Johansson, Esko Järvelä , Olav Luksengård Mjelva and many more. No orchestral staidness – lots of genuine animation, warmth and delight.
Also specially commissioned was Arvesølvet, bringing together four musi- cians from the region, from different musi- cal genres, to explore music from Sogn og Fjordane’s traditional music archives. Per- formed in surround-sound in Førde’s new art museum, Hilde Marie Holsen’s delicate, calm live-sampling of her veiled, muted trumpet and of the others’ hardanger fiddle, saw, accordeon and drums was a revelation.
Fiddler and singer Sigrid Moldestad’s
Samuline is her spectacular tribute to the women fiddlers who contributed so much to the local tradition but whom history has largely forgotten. A beautifully dressed and lit visual as well as musical tour-de- force, it involved other leading women fid- dlers including Sigrid’s former Spindel duo partner Liv Merete Kroken, with Anders
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