Janus

Hardanger fiddle player Annbjørg Lien has long been putting her instrument on the international map. She first recorded aged 12 and over nearly four decades she’s released solo and collaborative albums with the Norwegian Olympic group Bukkene Bruse, with international fiddle band String Sisters and musicians such as The Chieftains and Loreena McKennitt. Now aged 50, she’s always been doing what this album’s title, Janus, suggests, looking back and looking forward, looking in and out. She’s always taken her Hardanger fiddle music out into the wider world.

She says this album was inspired by a revisit to the folk music tradition in Setesdal, one of the Hardanger heartlands in southern Norway. All the tracks are composed by Lien, but it’s the opening instrumental ‘Amazon’ that sounds closest to the tradition. Two subsequent ones range much more widely with ‘The Clock is Ticking’ featuring English vocals and the electric guitar and harmonica of Knut Reiersrud and ‘Prince Purple’ with growling bass clarinet, electric bass and drums. ‘Snaky’ uses a Setesdal tuning with the lower string tuned down to F giving a dark, eerie sound to its 7/8 rhythm. The rich references to tradition combined with Lien’s open ideas make this a very appealing release.