Sweden - Stockholm Part I

Storgoret in Gamla Stan, the old part of Stockholm

 We arrive in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.  I spent a week in Stockholm a couple of years ago visiting an old friend.  It's a very pretty city, very chilled, and even worth visiting in February.  As usual for a capital city, there's plenty of music to discover here as well as great food such as here at the Hötorgshallen market:

This fabulous fish restaurant:

...and they even have a shop that only sells liquorice!

But on to the music.  We begin with folk band Ranarim.  Sofia Sanden, Ulrika Boden, Niklas Rosswall and Jens Engelbrecht were studying together at the Royal Academie of Music in Stockholm and got together to play both traditional folk songs and own compositions.  Sadly they no longer seem to be active.  Here is the opening track from their 2006 album Morgonstjärna called Maj Vare Välkommen:

Folk rock band Hedningarna (The Heathens) were formed in 1987 with the members coming from various parts of Sweden as well as Finland.  I'm not sure where they got together, but many of their songs on the early albums were sung in Finnish.  Their aim was to go far back to the roots of old Norse culture, including the use of ancient instruments.  Having luthier Anders Stake on board meant they make many of their own instruments.  Here is a song from their 1994 album Trä called Täss'on Nainen (Here's a woman in Finnish):

Stockholm folk trio Bazar Blå take a contemporary twist on traditional Swedish folk tunes.  The trio got together in 1996 and consists of Johan Hedin (Nyckelharpa), Björn Meyer (bass) and Fredrick Gille (percussion).  Here's the title track from their 2004 album Nysch, which is short for Den nya schottisen, the new schottis, a popular dance form in Sweden:

Stockholm based folk duo Symbio was founded in 2011 by Johannes Geworkian-Hellman and LarsEmil Öjeberget.  They combine hurdy-gurdy with accordion, accompanied by kickbox.  Their style has bee described as a meeting of folk, minimalistic art music and electronic dance music becoming a cinematic experience for the listener.  It certainly is unique and different.  Here is the title track from their 2018 album Rising:

In a similar vein but at a grander scale are the Second Hand Orchestra.  Their music has more than a hint of the Penguin Café Orchestra.  Recently they have started collaborating with Scottish singer/songwriter James Yorkston.  For their first joint album in 2021 The Wide,Wide River, Yorkston flew over to Stockholm and within hours of their first meeting went into the recording studio to produce this largely improvised album based on his songs.  A second album is in the pipeline.  Here's a song from the first album called Struggle:

Young chamber folk band Trio Törn consists of Olof Kennemark (violin), Klara Källström (cello) and Petrus Dillner (Nyckelharpa).  They play own compositions, deeply rooted in Swedish folk within a chamber music setting.  Here is the opening track of their 2018 debut album 'Debut', a polka called Hundraårspolskan:

That's it from Stockholm for today, next time we explore some of the international influences of the city. In the meantime you can follow my virtual trip on my Tripline map