Hälsingland – by the lake, beside the trees
Göran Klinghagen
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“It’s just a vision, a sound, a picture…”
Singer Fola Dada has written new texts to evergreen folk songs
The Swedish jazz guitar giant Göran Klinghagen has arranged some of the classic Swedish folk music tunes and plays them with the German ensemble he has been working with during the last decade. Singer Fola Dada has written new texts to evergreen folk songs and performs them in Swedish, German and English.
This gives us a fresh approach to these pieces, quite well known to the Swedish audience who have been treated to classical versions of them by Lars Gullin, Jan Johansson and many other great Swedish artists.
Görans words:
“It’s just a vision, a sound, a picture of a quiet lake or a tree waiting for something to start … a melody created by it’s surrounding nature, just pick it up and use it to celebrate life … transform it into something from the inside, trying to be a tool and tell the story like it is … maybe poetry … maybe not … maybe the story that we deeply understood when we were born, by the lake, beside the trees, in the Universe.
Musicians
Musicians: Göran Klinghagen, guitars, arranging and composing
Fola Dada, vocal, text and translations
Markus Harm, saxes, flute
Joo Kraus, trumpet, electronics
Veit Hübner, bass
Torsten Krill, drums, percussion, recording, mix and mastering
More info
Recorded at Studio Klangküche, Stuttgart 2018-19
Graphic design by Jon Edergren
Produced by Göran Klinghagen, Torsten Krill, Bengt Berger
Hälsingland was released on November 1, 2019
“The most unique thing with the Swedish jazz tradition is the influences from our folk music. Lars Gullin was one of the first to include our folk tone in his music, he became a great inspiration in our musical development. Jan Johansson developed this masterfully as did Bengt-Arne Wallin and Nils Lindberg and later on Jonas Knutsson, Lena Willemark, Palle Danielsson and many others.
Having arranged a lot of jazz music based on the Swedish folk tradition and played it a lot in Germany during the last decade I have been amazed by the strong impact these influences had on my fellow musicians and the listeners. So I picked my favourite musicians from the Stuttgart area to play these classic Swedish folksy melodies in new arrangements for quintet and sextet. Fola Dada wrote texts and sings in English, German and even in Swedish. Here is the result.” – Göran Klinghagen
Reviews
Reviews in Swedish: Peter Sjöblom, Mono, Lira, Värmlands Folkblad:
I “Hälsingland” förstår vi hur tillvaron hänger ihop.
In English: United Mutations, Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts, Jazz Journal and an especially great one by Raul da Gama!
