Supertraditionellt Material

This album is a breaking open of the treasure chest of the Caprice Records archive, curated by Swedish folk musicians Sara Parkman and Samantha Ohlanders. It's a foundation stone, the first in a series of curated collections. It takes us back to the very roots of the Scandinavian tradition.

This begins and ends in the fäbovallar – the Scandinavian shieling huts in which seasonal herders would live while pasturing their animals. This is a pre-agricultural rhythm with its roots in nomadic herding and Sámi traditions. The opener is a herding tune sung by Tjugmyr Maria Larsson and recorded in the early 20th century. The closer is a mesmeric 15-minute excerpt of a herding song made by a sextet of folk musicians at the end of the 20th century. Elsewhere, there are kulning (herding calls), polskas (dance tunes), hymns and joiking (from renowned Sámi joiker Wimme Saari) that offer a wide window into Scandinavian traditions from folk to Lutheran and from the rawest field recording to highly experimental soundscapes. If you've ever wondered about the region that produced the likes of Björk, this reveals some of the answers – raw and unearthly vocal sounds and tunes from the ancient heart of Scandinavia.