Per Gudmundson & Bengan Janson

Posted 2018-04-27

Two of the major voices on the Swedish folk music scene today will be releasing their first duo album on Country & Eastern. This will happen at the Ransäter Festival on June 8, 2018. The album is called “Hjeltamôs”

Folk music has been a corner stone of Bengan’s music-making since first he met Björn Ståbi in 1989. Björn also helped Bengan and Per to get in touch with one another around a year later. With his fiddle and his Swedish bagpipe, Per has a long and winding musical road behind him as a member of Frifot and together with Björn and other musicians. Our musical identity spans from jazz, world music and classical music to the rich springs of the music of Rättvik and Orsa.

Says Per and Bengan: “The music we play is traditional music in which every performance builds on a long chain of historically-transmitted knowledge. The roots of the music are found in Sweden’s peasant society, in the music of the summer pastures, baroque music and church music. It offers fantastic openings for us to create something new by fusing history with our own musical identity – which has been formed by music that has left a lasting impression on us – and the world around us today. This fusion need not be dramatic – the music thrives on subtlety. In Sweden we often look upon the tradition as something static and museal. Yes – it can be, if we lock it up and throw away the key. Nothing could be more wrong!”

Here is a video by Viktor Gårdsäter from the album, “Polska efter Monis Olle”

Hjeltamôs is nominated for a Swedish Grammy on February 7!
AND for the Manifest award on February 15th.