Annbjorg Lien
While Sweden and Finland have become very visible on the international scene over the last few years, Norway has produced very few folk artists who've achieved any type of global recognition. One who has, however, is hardanger fiddle player Annbjorg Lien. Over the course of three albums (four in her native country) she's shown herself to be not only technically skilled, but remarkably melodically inventive. Her latest release, Baba Yaga, finds her moving away from the traditional music of her early albums into a world of samples, loops, and even a brief prog-rock tribute. It's a glorious thing, with its heart in the past and its face to the future, a record that seems to capture her exactly as she is - adventurous, funny, and happy to push all kinds of envelopes. Not bad for someone who was studying to be a furniture designer. But it was, to be fair, in her blood.
"I want to do music for the rest of my life." |
One of the fiddlers she got to know was Hauk Buen, who became something of an inspiration for her.
"I stayed there for weeks. I talked to him, we talked about music, we played for each other, learned some tunes and listened to some old recordings. It was fabulous to be in that atmosphere."
Along the way, as well as learning folk fiddle - where the traditional was largely aural, rather than written, she'd also received a strong grounding in classical music.
"I started playing the fiddle when I was six, and began a classical education parallel with the folk music in a local music school." Lien recalls. "I did that until I was about 16. Then I wanted to dive into it more deeply, but I found that to combine [folk and classical music] was too difficult. So I stopped the classical and chose the folk music."
By then, however, she was pretty much already a professional. Having appeared on Norwegian television. Music, it seems, had chosen her, it seems.
"I never decided it, I was suddenly there and there was no return. I started to travel alone very early, when I was twelve or thirteen - I got a lot of responsibility very early. I learned a lot and I met a lot of musicians, learned about a lot of different cultures and traditions."
For most people outside norway, it was the Kaiser and Lindley Sweet Sunny North compilation that brought Annbjorg Lien into view, ain the early part of the Nineties. Since then, her solo albums (as well as her work with the folk band Bukkene Bruse) have seen her rapidly expanding her limits. But as she does so, she believes traditional music gains in importance.
"I want to do music for the rest of my life," she says firmly. "The whole thing is a process. CDs are a window of where you are. For me, I've just wanted to try things out, and not think so much, or analyze so much. Is this right to do, is this wrong to do? If you're going to communicate with people via music you can't have rules, and for me I think maybe Baba Yaga could be the closest to the really old stuff, energy-wise, and in the concept. It's almost like a concept album, almost like the old dramatic nature of the tunes back home. So I feel I've moved back to that, but it's also the most modern. It's difficult to explain my music, because it's inspired by everything I've done - the last record, the people I've met, the places I've been, the small situations. But for the audience I think it's important to turn off the head, just be therein the music, instead of trying to understand it."
One of those places she's been that had a real influence on her was Mozambique, which was the direct inspiration for Inoque, one track on Baba Yaga.
"Bukkene Bruse were asked to be ambassadors for Save the Children. We went to Mozambique to learn about the work there, and to communicate with the children via music. It was just fantastic, and I was so embarrassed - their relationship to music is so relaxed, so natural, their hips are moving softly and naturally. I really felt like a stone statue! When you come home you feel so stupid with your problems. Music is a part of their life, not a performance thing. They sing together, dance together, and it's gorgeous."
"My dad was my first teacher for the first ten years," |
"It's a little shorter than the normal violin, but flatter on both the bridge and fingerboard, so the technique is to play on two strings at the same time, and always have a drone along with the melody." With its four extra sympathetic string, which vibrate and offer overtones under the fingerboard, it's related to the viola ‘d amore and other baroque instruments. "You have a double-finger technique, like a chord instrument, a lot of ornaments. And the tunes are more based on energy than a ‘tune'. They're more like small symphonies, with themes, variations of themes, and room for improvisation on the themes. It's like travel."
While she also plays the nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle) and regular violin, the hardanger and its range of expression remains very much her favorite instrument.
"I have two electric violins, I have a good time playing them, but I haven't found a place for them yet. I think it's more interesting to work with the old hardanger fiddle and the sound and what happens when you put that together with a band - it's a very rich solo instrument. For me the traditional music and arranged music go hand in hand. I think the contrasts are important."
But the place she always comes home to is traditional Norwegian music.
"I have to go there often to be rooted and connected and find inspiration in the energy and colors there," she admits. "Because I'm there so often, that's why I can trust the tradition when I do a record like Baba Yaga with a lot of arrangements and bring in an excellent producer. I dare to do it because I know the tradition can take it."
And so the past feeds into the present and the future....
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