Friday 20 January 2023

Norway - Trøndelag

We continue our zig-zag journey through Scandinavia and hopping back over the border to Norway and the county of Trøndelag.  First stop is the historic and pretty mining town of Røros, which due to its large collection of old timber houses has Unesco World Heritage status.

Photo credit: By Hogne - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1705607

This is where Hardanger fiddler Olav Mjelva is from.  He has collaborated with many acts, including the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc (whom we met in Sweden before).  Another Norwegian/Swedish duo he is involved in is together with Swedish Nyckelharpa player Erik Rydvall forming the duo Rydvall/Mjelva.  Together they skilfully combine their respective national instruments to play both Norwegian and Swedish folk tunes.  This is a tune from their 2019 album 
Vårvindar Friska called Jubileumspolska:


Fiddler Ingeborg Ulberg Sommer is also from Røros.  She doesn't seem to have her own website, but has released her debut solo album Attkømmen in 2021.  Here is a tune from the album called simply Vals:

We already met joiker Marja Mortensson in Inlandet county, where she is from.  In 2019 she collaborated with tuba player and composer Daniel Herskedal from Molde and the Trondheim Solist String Quartet, which leads us to Trondheim.  Here is the opening track to their 2019 album Lååje - Dawn called GUBPEDE BÖÖTIM - Where did I come from:

Accordionist Frode Haltli was born in the town of Levanger in 1975.  He started playing at the age of 7 and he has had a prolific and award winning career.  Amongst other projects he heads a 10-piece super band called Avant Folk, which includes some well known names such as Hardanger fiddler Erlend Apneseth and Fiddler Hans P Kjorstad, both of whom we have met before on this blog.  They describe their music as experimental folk meeting jazz and chamber music.  Here is a live concert of theirs in Bremen, Germany with extracts from their 2017 self-titled album:

That's it for today, next we are heading back into Sweden again on our zigzag tour of Scandinavia.  Until next time you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.


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