Väder

My first hearing of Väder was on Swedish Radio, the sound of a fiddle duo stopping me in my tracks with their exquisite playing of a typically haunting Swedish folk tune with its beckoning dance rhythms and beguiling blue notes. Ellika Frisell and Emma Reid met in 2000 at Stockholm’s Royal College of Music when Anglo-Swedish fiddler Reid began studying with Frisell, one of the most influential contributors across many years in the Swedish folk music scene. Astonishingly this is their debut album as a duo (violas and fiddles) but it reveals their close musical relationship, breathing as one, delighting in their shared Swedish heritage as well as exploring their own compositions. From polskas, waltzes and bridal marches to percussive sounds and rhythms from beyond Sweden’s shores, this is a collection of music that will delight any newcomer to the Swedish folk tradition, and give those who already have polska moves coursing through their veins a gift of new perspectives and musical adventures. Emma & Ellika have worked on some magical collaborations over the years (Frisell & Solo Cissokho, for example, Reid with Rob Harbron and Tuulikki Bartosik), now in Väder they have come home to a very special place.