Linden Bar Lov / Meie Din / Gift Med Nacken / Herr Olof / Fortune Plango /
Kallarhjonets Lilla Van / Jungfrun I Buren / Lussa Lilla / Barnarovet /
Saltarello Iv / Femton Ganger / Lindromen
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One image of Nordic music
invokes a witches' Sabbath of rhythmic brutality accelerated into a
devilish tornado, while another calls forth a sedate, almost geometrically
classical string ensemble. Swedish septet Två Fisk och en Fläsk (Two Fish
and One Bacon) delivers on both conceptions, with a heavy emphasis on the
former. The three-man percussion section imparts more thunderous drive to
this acoustic ensemble than could a dozen distorted electric guitars.
Dual, and occasionally dueling, fiddlers play with a raw abandon, never
flinching from dissonance, alternately produced in distanced reverb or
middle-of-the-scull immediacy, while a single guitar holds things together
with suspicious ease. The vocals of Umer Mossige-Norheim, fragile and
falsetto, lacking the direct power of Garmarna's Emma Härdelin, seem at
first a poor fit for such a dynamic combo, but ultimately serve through
contrast. |
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