Kristine Heebøll

Kristine Heboll Kristine Hebøll Folk Image

"I compose in my own musical language. And my background is folk music, so of course you can hear the Danish/Scandinavian tradition coming through."

Roots music can be a springboard to many worlds, touching on everything from pop to classical. Keeping a grounding in there isn't always easy, but Danish fiddler Kristine Heebøll has achieved an excellent balance with her debut, Trio Mio. Working with bouzouki/guitar player Jens Ulvsand and keyboard player Nikolaj Busk as a core, she's created a warm, inviting work whose heart is in Danish folk music.

Heebøll "grew up in a musical family in a little village in the south of Denmark. There was a lot of interest in Danish folkdance and folk music in this area, and my family both danced and played. We listened to a lot of different sorts of music, classical, pop and Scandinavian folk music."

She began playing violin at the age of seven, learning classical music at school, while going for folk at home, music for dancing with her family. And since folk music was "definitely more fun," the classical side disappeared quite quickly.

"I compose in my own musical language. And my background is folk music, so of course you can hear the Danish/Scandinavian tradition coming through."

"After school I chose an education in world music, because it was the closest I could get to folk music at the time. I was the only violin player at the school, so I had the opportunity to play a lot of different styles; Afro, salsa, rock, pop, jazz, and I had a great time of learning! After graduating I studied Danish folk music as a candidate degree at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, and I was one of the first to graduate in folkmusic, "cand. folk" and " cand.dans"."

With that impressive resume she began playing with an early incarnation of Phønix in 1992, experimenting with Danish and Scandinavian folk music. She remained with them for three CDs and toured extensively in Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic and Japan, and I before in 2000. After graduating from the Academy in 2002 she took a break "and tried to figure out how to make a living as a musician."

For Trio Mio "I had some tunes, I really liked, and when I played them for people they always asked me where they could listen to more of the same.... so I had to make a CD."

One feature of the disc are the tracks featuring a string quartet. Those had their genesis when shen was studying composition at the Academy, where "I was encouraged to write music for a lot of different lineups, and one of the most successful was the string quartet, so of course I put them on my CD, too."

The trio format that makes up most of the disc appeared largely by accident.

"Nikolaj heard me playing with HeebøllVintherDuo on the Tønder Festival, and asked me to play with him for his exam on the academy of music in Copenhagen. After this we met a couple of times just for fun and to play some of my tunes, arranged for piano and violin. The same autumn I took classes in the Carl Nielsen Academy with Jens Ulvsand as a teacher, and we played well together from the start. So therefore I went to Sweden and visited him and we played both his and my tunes. I had these two "swinging" dates at the same time, and I just had to try to combine them. And this trio could easily cope with playing most of the tunes on my new record."

The CD, Heebøll said, " represents me and the stuff I write. And it is a mixture of the groovy trio-tunes, the smooth string quartets and the vocal lullaby (the only vocal track on the record, beautifully sung by Julia Maria). The lullaby is well known in my family my grandfather used to sing it, when I was a little girl. And it is a nice way for me to say goodbye, goodnight and thank you for listening and all the best for the coming day : "... Manna falls like the dew on the cradle/ to the child on the earth from the table of the angels/ You´ll find it with a smile tomorrow/ And cleer-eyed and sudden/ You will say goodnight/ To doubt, fear and sorrow..." And at the very end I play the epilogue, which almost stands still....

So what, you might wonder, makes up Heebøll's music?

"Like every other composer, I compose in my own musical language. And my background is folk music, so of course you can hear the Danish/Scandinavian tradition coming through. At the same time it is obvious that I am influenced by classical, jazz, world music and every other kind of good music! As Duke Ellington said : " There are only two kinds of music; good music and bad music". And all I do is try to write in the tradition of the good music."

With her album now out, Heebøll is preparing for a strenuous year ahead, including "playing in Germany this summer, and in the autumn, we are planning a tour in Denmark. I also have concerts with HeebøllVintherDuo and a trio, where we play fairytale concerts for children. In October I will be playing violin in a stage play - the play is about old folksongs. As a teacher I am spending some of the summer on folk camps for kids and youngsters, in Denmark, England, Belgium and Slovenia. From September to December I'll be teaching a folk music course in a high school."

But her calendar is also rapidly filling up beyond that point. There's also a project with a Danish trumpet player "and two wonderful musicians from Berlin. And then with Yat-Kha, a folk-rock band from Tuva, who want to make fusion music with a Danish fiddler. My next CD will contain a lot Of Danish folksongs and psalms in new arrangements. I have been experimenting a lot with the old material, and I love this atmosphere in these songs!"

Kristine Heebøll

"I compose in my own musical language. And my background is folk music, so of course you can hear the Danish/Scandinavian tradition coming through."

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