root salad f22 Fru Skagerrak
Chris Nickson enthuses about an inventive Nordic trio of fiddle-playing singers.
contributions to Ankerdram, unusually mixes polka and calypso, the idea coming from a Carlsberg poster her grandfather brought back from his years in California.
But whatever the style, every piece has a groove. That’s the vital factor for all three members. “We all learned to play for dances. We like dance music,” Hildrum says. “To us, it’s very normal for people to dance; we all started young. Music is social. We like to figure out what the groove is all about.”
A A
shopping centre in Sweden might not be the best place for an inter- view. But the three members of Fru Skagerrak are on their way to a gig and this is the first place they have found a wi-fi signal, that imperative of the digital age.
The band has just released Ankerdram, their second CD, a disc that bristles with confidence and bubbles with musicality and the sheer joy of playing. For a trio that start- ed life in backstage jams at Denmark’s Tøn- der Festival, they’ve come a long way and have truly found themselves
“In the beginning, we were all part of a large group playing fiddles there,” recalls Elise Wessel Hildrum, the Norwegian fiddle and recorder player. “Over two or three years we kept meeting up there, and we’d go off together to one side. Then we received an offer to play at a festival in Baltimore, Ire- land. So we had to become a band!”
That was 2014. By 2016, Fru Skagerrak had released their first, self-titled album, a disc that explored the common ground and differences of their cultures, an area that’s still proving very fertile for them.
“We focus on a balance between each
country,” explains Swedish fiddler Anna Lindblad. “In the beginning our sound was more traditional, but on this new record there’s probably more traditional material; all the songs are traditional. We focus more on similarities than differences. We still speak to each other in our native lan- guages; there’s enough of an overlap for us to understand each other.”
“But everything must have some courage and daring in the way we approach it,” Hildrum adds.
“This time we had Antti Järvelä from Finland produce the sessions,” Danish fiddle player Maja Kjær Jacobsen says. “He was very patient, he’d tell us when enough was enough for takes – sometimes after a while you go deaf to things in the studio. He brought out the best in us all.”
“He gave us a few nudges, hints and clues,” Hildrum agrees. “He knew what would and would not work for us.”
Recording was completed in five days. But by then they had two years of touring under their belts. Not constantly (“a lot of concerts in one period, then a break,” Lind- blad notes. “House concerts and smaller venues”), but enough to establish their own, vivacious style that shows on the record, and to become completely used to each other. Importantly, the material they recorded had been tested on the road; a mix of pieces they’d been jamming since before their debut, tunes they all liked, and things they’d promised themselves they would record.
“We picked out the ones we liked most,” Jacobsen says. “We’re more confi- dent now, the sound is more mature, which happens in any band. You find your sound and choose material to suit it.”
And the inspiration arrives from every- where. “Some Irish and Québecois music, old-time, Cajun, and a bit of polka,” Jacob- sen observes. Den Glade Brygger, one of her
ll three of them sing, and they use their voices very effectively on the songs dotted throughout Anker- dram, even acapella on Kong Valli-
van, and sometimes altering and rewriting traditional pieces, as they did with Sømandsvals. “We get an idea and try to have fun with it,” says Lindblad. “But it’s the first feeling of a great idea that carries it.”
That sense of fun pervades the entire album. But inevitably it’s the result of hard work and plenty of thought to create that joy. “The idea of three fiddles together is different for us all,” Hildrum notes. And this time around they’ve added other instru- ments to give extra textures to the music, but the fiddle stays at the heart of it all.
“I think we choose to use recorder and five-string fiddle as a flavour,” Jacobsen says. “We come from fiddle jams, that’s our emphasis. And it’s fun to sing together, to use other instruments, too. Three fiddles was the original idea.”
For Hildrum, whose main instrument is actually recorder (she grew up playing clas- sical music, discovering folk and the sjøfly- øte later and getting her degree on the instrument), it’s meant some adaptation.
“If I have to force it on the recorder, I’ll play it on the fiddle,” she says.
Adaptation and sweet compromise have been key to Fru Skagerrak. Living in three different countries, simply coming together offers a challenge.
“We try to put in time when we have gigs,” Hildrum says. “Other times we’ll meet at Anna’s place in the Swedish countryside, which is pretty much in the middle for us. Basically, whenever it’s possible.”
“When we meet as a band, it’s 24/7,” Lindblad adds. “When we saw each other in April, we hadn’t met since recording in December. But we talk on Skype every week.”
Courage, daring, and acres of unbridled Scandinavian musical fun. Really, what’s not to enjoy?
fruskagerrak.com F
Photo: Ingvil Skeie Ljones
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
