Trio Mio

Danish music continues its rise as a star in the world music firmament, bringing forth new names all the time. One who really burst on the scene in 2004 was fiddler Kristine Heebøll, with her debut solo CD, Trio Mio. A year later she's consolidated that promising start with Pigeon Folk Pieces, released not under her own name, but (confusingly) as Trio Mio, with Jens Ulvsand (bouzouki, guitar, voice) and Nikolaj Busk (piano, accordion, voice) who'd also played on the first album.

"Wrong doesn´t exist. A note is never wrong, but sometimes there comes new and exciting notes, and you have to react on this note."

"In the very beginning we started out just being a part of my solo project," she explains. "I had different line ups on that CD, duos, trios and quartets. But this Nikolaj-Jens-Kristine-thing was special! It worked out so good, easygoing and funny, so we decided to play more together. It was natural to start off with the repertoire from my CD, so when we contacted venues we sent my solo-project-CD. So I was asked when "Kristine Heebøll Band" would perform, but I didn´t want it to be my band with my name on it. I am not so much into being the front figure and exposing my self in that way…And the fact that all three of us are putting so much of ourselves into it, did the final thing about the decision: to have a real band name. So we took the name from the CD, because it is my trio, and Jens´s trio and Nikolaj´s trio."

Originally it was a format that fell together by accident, after Heebøll had graduated from the folk program at the Carl Nielsen Academy and was trying to "figure out how to make a living as a musician. Nikolaj heard me playing with Heebøll/Vinther Duo at 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 record."

That record covered quite a bit of ground, as she readily admits, with its mixture of "the groovy trio-tunes, the smooth string quartets (including the sublime "Da Jeg Forstod At Æbletræet Er Levende") 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 clear-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.... "

But the record's most magical moments came when the trio played together, and after its release, sticking together seemed an obvious choice for everyone.

"From the start we had a very good musical communication. And when we play a lot of concerts (we have played about 35 concerts in our first year), it gets even better. And the music evolves all the time. I feel it's simpler to play now I know the boys better, but I could imagine, the music gets more complex for a listener´s ear. In Trio Mio there is a deal, which was never made, but we just found out, that it existed : that you can't play wrong. Wrong doesn´t exist. A note is never wrong, but sometimes there comes new and exciting notes, and you have to react on this note. For every concert, we get more relaxed, and when you relax, the music takes over. And then it is really funny to play music, because we get better together than each person alone."

The music on Pigeon Folk Pieces shows a great advance over its predecessor, more focused and complex, each track a feast of delights and interplay between the instruments, performed with style and more than a little wit; perhaps the closest analogy is Sweden's Väsen. And this time around, the works aren't all from Heebøll's pen, although they still have their inspiration in the light dance of Danish folk.

"We have expanded our repertoire with a lot of new tunes, which all three of us brought to the band," Heebøll says. "It is also good for being a "band" that we all take responsibility and the space to suggest new tunes. It ´s cool we have so many of our own compositions, it makes the concerts very personal with good stories of our own experiences. Fewer of the compositions on this record are by my hand. It is not because I don´t write so much music anymore, it is more or less the same as always. But because the repertoire now are more from all three, the album reflects this case. I hope, I will find the possibility to do another solo record some day with different line ups, small groups. I am looking forward to it, and of course I will invite Trio Mio as well! It´s nearly impossible not to do so."

The unusual title Pigeon Folk Pieces, she notes, actually comes from the expression, "pigeon folk music", which we invented on a tour. The term Pigeon (sic) English is used for the kind of English language, that is spoken for example on Jamaica. It is like a dialect or a mixture with the original tongue. And one day, we found out, that the music, we play must be "pigeon folk music"! Because: We mix the traditional music with music, we make ourselves. We play our own dialect of folk music…"

"We are not full - still hungry for playing!"

For that most part that dialect is played live on violin, bouzouki, and accordion, "but on this record we also do a lot of guitar and accordion. And Jens even sings on a tune! On one tune, "Edderfuglen" we have a guest musician, Jakob Holdensen, on trumpet. On "Wrong Word, Right?" we have the most expensive note on the record. Nikolaj plays a bell on A, and he bought this bell only for this note on this tune for 300 kr ( $54 )! Some tunes are very nice, quiet and airy and some are faster devilish and whirling, with lots of notes and crazy improvisations. We like to play both ways, and it makes the record very …full of facets."

But Heebøll is used to taking chances. She was an early member of the groundbreaking Danish group Phønix, who are still pushing the boundaries, staying with them for several years. And she still loves to playing Danish folk music, "but mostly for dances, then I have the interaction with the dancers that makes the music alive. And of course I am still influenced by this music, as all the other kinds of music, I listen to. I like the fact that the world is full of music not boarded by genres, but influenced by each other all the time. And then you only have to decide for yourself, if you like the music not because of the type of music, but because you think it is good music."

Pigeon Folk Pieces arrived, quite literally, as the band was promoting and giving low-key performances at the 2005 Womex world music exposition, and their playing won them a host of friends. With the CD release they're beginning a hectic period of supporting it on the road.

"We will do some touring, of course in Denmark, but we will also go to Sweden, Italy and Germany. And then we have another and very exciting project: Playing concerts for school children, where the theme is Denmark / Sweden. The similarities and the differences, and the fact that the languages are more like dialects than actually different.

We hope to do some more touring abroad, and we trust our new booker booking to find a lot of good gigs for us!" So, although she anticipates adding other strings to her bow, there's little doubt that Trio Mio will continue. And if they continue to evolve at this rate, they look set to become a major musical name. For now, though, Heebøll laughs, "we are not full - still hungry for playing!"

This article first appeared in Sing Out!

Trio Mio

"Wrong doesn´t exist. A note is never wrong, but sometimes there comes new and exciting notes, and you have to react on this note."

"We are not full - still hungry for playing!"

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