Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals, other languages
International relevance: **
Styrbjörn
Bergelt was a comparatively under-recorded folk musician that went
through several stages before specializing in reviving old and just
about forgotten Nordic folk instruments. He started playing jazz
trombone before entering the world of classical music as a French
horn player. It was during his time at The Royal Academy of Music he
gravitated towards traditional music and took up the recorder along
with the so called spilå pipe (a traditional variant of the
recorder). He rediscovered and reintroduced the willow pipe and the
Finnish bowed lyre called tagelharpa (literally: horsehair harp).
His first recording was ”Å än är det glädje å än är det gråt”, a joint venture with Marie Selander and Susanne Broms in 1976. He returned three years later
with his first true solo album, ”Tagelharpa och videflöjt” on
which he introduced some of his rediscovered instruments to a larger
audience.
A few tracks have vocals by Fred Lane,
Ingrid Mickelin and Estonian Igor Tönurist, but the album is mainly
instrumental. Many of the tunes will sound familiar if you're at all
acquainted with Swedish and Scandinavian folk harmonics and melodics,
but the tones and timbres are different from what you usually hear.
Especially the tunes performed on the bowed lyre sounds quite a lot
raspier and grainier than they would on the regular fiddle. Simply
put, the archaic resonance makes those tunes and songs sound every
bit as ancient as the instrument itself. It also makes the entire
album particularly captivating. Bergelt is a fine musician as is, but
the sheer ring of especially the bowed lyre draws you in and keeps
you fascinated that a standard fiddle album won't necessarily do. So
even if you think you've heard enough of Swedish folk music, this
might very well be that extra album you need to hear.
Bergelt was also a recognized painter -- the watercolour painting on the cover is his.
Full album playlist (but the running order is jumbled up)
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