(2019) Frode Haltli - Border Woods


Review:
Accordionist Frode Haltli follows up last year’s acclaimed Hubro release, Avant Folk, with a smaller -scale yet equally inspired album that is built once again on the combination of traditional Nordic folk forms with influences drawn from world music and contemporary composition/improvisation. In some ways, Border Woods is both folkier and more ‘avant’ than its predecessor. The reduction in the size of the ensemble, from a dectet to a quartet, creates a corresponding increase in intensity, while Haltli frequently divides the unit further, using the two matched pairs of performers separately for a number of duo sequences. As the band expands and contracts in response to the demands of each tune, the music veers from cool, meditative explorations at the outer reaches of sound, to full-on pentatonic grooves and folk-rocky, foot-tapping jams. And what a band it is. Alongside Frode Haltli on accordion, Emilia Amper on nyckelharpa (Sweden’s national instrument, a centuries-old chordophone, or keyed fiddle) makes for a perfect partnership. The result is some archaic sounding music from who knows where!” If ‘Border Woods’ begins and ends with experimental soundscaping, the middle sections contain some of the most joyfully rocking and riffing, folk-based grooves imaginable. Accordion and nyckelharpa are locked into a symbiotic partnership where it’s impossible to tell who is leading and who is following. The initiative seems to swap so quickly from instrument to instrument, and from what sounds like a sea shanty, to a jig or reel, to a snatch of what could be French cafe music or a minimalist piece by Steve Reich, that it’s impossible to keep count. Meanwhile, the percussionists do their thing, sometimes complementing, sometimes appearing to undercut or work against the text, inserting an essential element of unpredictability.


Tracklist:
01 - Wind Through Aspen Leaves
02 - Mostamägg Polska
03 - Wood and Stone
04 - Taneli’s Lament (Sorrow Comes to All…)
05 - Valkola Schottis
06 - Quietly the Language Dies


Media Report:
Genre: alternative folk
Source: CD
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits