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artist :	Spaelimenninir
album :	Malargrót
Multi-national Scandinavian Dance-Music

Put all the tracks from this stately and cheerful traditional dance album into a blender and what do you get? Denmark with a little Shetland spice! But there's no electric mixing appliance here, and no Shetland...it's the piano that is reminiscent of Shetland.... Spaelimennir is a multi-national Scandinavian dance band, with members coming from Denmark, Sweden, America (including grammy winning record restorer Charlie Piltzer on bass), and the Faeroe Islands, but it is to the small, isolated Danish Faeroes that they are most closely linked. How do you get to the Faeroes? If you take the Atlantic ferry north from Shetland to Iceland in the summer, you will find them. The band collects music from The Faroe Islands, and you will find a few of these tunes on Malargrot. There are other tunes from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and some are composed by band members. The dance music on the instrumental Malargrot is light and cheerful, and very well performed. There are no shamans or omens here, little dark mystisk, but rather community and laughter in warm houses, pubs, and halls. But my favorites do have a little dark lilt in the key structure. One is "Fair Isle Reinlendari," composed in Scandinavian by frettist Ivar Barentsen for the island between Orkney and Shetland...a wee troll seems to be singing in this one, so it sounds a bit Danish and Medieval. The second is a set of tunes from Fano in Denmark, the last of which, "Det forst brujstyk," contains a powerful minor passage emphasized here by piano. Two Fareoese tunes are from the notebook of Jens Christian Svabo (1746-1824). The first, between two Barentson compositions, is straightforward and light; the second, Mars, is an orderly tune that sounds like Bach.! Faroese Kristian Blak's (mostly) solo piano compositions contrast with the rest of the album tracks. They are actually arrangements of northern traditional music, but, with jazz influences, are much more stark and modern than the originals, and slower and less happy than the dance band tunes. Perhaps it is a contrast with the modern and the historical, with modern autonomy and historical community, or perhaps it can just be heard that way. Recommended for anyone interested in European/Scandinavian music, dance music, or folk music in general. Malargrot is a lovely album with spirit, and good, honest arrangements and production. (Roger Rey)