# Music by Genre > Celtic, U.K., Nordic, Quebecois, European Folk >  Nordic/Finnish/Swedish folk music recommendation

## derp

Im a huge fan of Irish/Scottish/Asturian folk music, grew up listening to it/playing it. Recently someone suggested I might like some Swedish/Finnish folk music. Ive never heard it but would really like some suggestions if anyone has any! 

Cheers,
Derp

----------


## Dagger Gordon

Vasen from Sweden

----------

Jacksml, 

Jim Garber, 

Peter Kurtze, 

tmsweeney

----------


## DougC

Thanks Dagger for that fine gift of music. Vassen is just amazing.

Here is another tune from a less well known band and it shows how a mandolin fits into the mix.

----------

Anglocelt, 

Jacksml, 

Jim Garber, 

SOMorris

----------


## Eric Platt

Finnish mandolin is heavily influenced by Heikki Lahti. 




More modern is Jarmo Romppanen - 




And for a good Finnish band there's Frigg-

----------

Anglocelt, 

DougC, 

Jacksml, 

Jim Garber, 

tmsweeney, 

Trubadur

----------


## mandocrucian

*Finland:*
Ottopasuuna 
JPP
Maria Kalaniemi
Helsinki Mandoliners (mandolin trio)
Värtinnä
Gjallarhorn
Tallari
Jarmo Rompanen (mandolin player)
Heikki Lahti (mandolin player, RIP)

*Sweden:*
Frifrot
Groupa
Väsen
Nordan (Ale Möller, Lena Willemark)
Hendningarna
Garmarna
Bäsk
Den Fule

*Norway:*
Annbjørg Lien
Bukkene Bruse
Ånon Egelund

*Denmark:*
Himmerland
Lars Lillholt Band
Baldrian
Rasmus (Rasmus Storm)

Once you start calling these names up on YouTube, there will plenty more groups/artists (younger ones) that will show up on the autoplay list.

Niles H.

----------

Eric Platt, 

Jacksml, 

Jim Garber

----------


## Dagger Gordon

Magnus Zetterlund is a very good Swedish mandolin player. I enjoy his Nordic trio line-up.
http://www.magnuszetterlund.com/

I've always liked their 2009 performance at Urkult Festival. Great atmosphere they get going.

----------


## Dagger Gordon

And since it's nearly Christmas, you might enjoy this thread which features some of the top Swedish players and singers doing Christmas music. It's full of really lovely performances.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...hlight=folkton

----------


## catmandu2

There's also a deep well of trad fiddling - similar to that in the Isles.  This is the well I particularly fell into, having a similar background as you in Irish/Scots trad.  For me it's a particularly alluring form combining many of my favorite elements - all on one fiddle  :Smile:

----------


## Magnus Geijer

Just using the search word nyckelharpa gets you a lot of good stuff, whether on youtube or spotify or whatever. 

/Magnus

----------

Gunnar, 

violmando

----------


## catmandu2

I suppose that Vasen, Frifot and Ale Moller's varied work first got me interested in Nordic music (*and big mandolins)...actually, before that, Manfred Eicher and ECM.  Subsequently I became more interested in the older trad, polska, drones, percussion..

Here's a short article on Finnish folk, albeit from an accordion perspective.  https://fmq.fi/articles/do-not-dance...ions-burn-them

The article mentions that trad fiddling has not regained its popularity (while the accordion, and of course newer folk forms, have).  I'm a bit of an archeologist or anachronist I guess, as it's the old forms and old instruments that I like.  For example I traded my big mandolins for oud.

----------


## DougC

Here is another of my favorite Swedish music videos. Gabi and Jamie really know their 'give and take' in ensemble arrangements. 

Actually I started on fiddle, playing Scandinavian music at the Spelmanslag at the Minneapolis Swedish Institute back in the early 1990's.  (click the link for some nice audio recordings,)

----------

Eric Platt

----------


## derp

Brilliant, I’ll have a listen to all your recommendations over the holidays.
Thanks very much for getting back to me!

----------


## catmandu2

I wonder about that - the Ilkka Kolehmainen piece.  If folk revival stuff was as "popular" as they say it once was, isn't it just as so now?  Or are they conflating modernity, rock, EDM et al with the "demise" of folk music.  Yes people move to cities and and a different economy and grow old and have varied taste and access; but does "gentrification" apply here?  Matter of perspective I guess.  I believe 
the remnants of our ancestry plays into our lives, perhaps in ways we aren't aware..

----------


## FPhil

Oskar Reuter is a great musician from Sweden, plays guitar, nyckelharpa and mandolin, check him (and his bands) out:

https://youtu.be/UeVO_eTdxlw

https://youtu.be/8Ycfo3Biyn8

https://www.oskarreuter.com/bands-25219377

----------


## DougC

Traditional music is in good hands if this band is any indication. The only difference is that this generation removes their shoes!

----------

Gunnar

----------


## Jim Garber

> Just using the search word nyckelharpa gets you a lot of good stuff, whether on youtube or spotify or whatever. 
> 
> /Magnus


Yes for Swedish. Try hardingfele or hardanger fiddle for one regional style of Norwegian music. *HFAA* in US has lots of information on the instrument.

----------


## Gunnar

Julia Frölich is one of my favorite people to listen to on YouTube. There's no new videos of her, but from 2017 and before there's a bunch of videos of her playing nyckelharpa, fiddle and guitar. 
Also on my YouTube channel I have a playlist called "Favorites - Nordic/Scandinavian that you can check out, it's got a lot of great videos

----------


## Trubadur

> Actually I started on fiddle, playing Scandinavian music at the Spelmanslag at the Minneapolis Swedish Institute back in the early 1990's.  (click the link for some nice audio recordings,)


I started on fiddle with the ASI Spelmanslag too, back around the turn of the century. I got interested when so many of the groups mentioned above used to converge on Minneapolis for the late, great Nordic Roots Festival.

A lot of Swedish tunes are meant for dancing. This is my favorite slängpolska performance (with Magnus Zetterlund playing accompaniment). 





And a fun halling (Norwegian dance known in Sweden as well) from the Väsen 30-year anniversary concert.

----------

Beanzy, 

DougC, 

Eric Platt

----------


## catmandu2

That's a beautiful polska performance.

Here's another Halling rhythm - Norwegian hardingfele - similar melody to the one above

----------

Growltigger

----------


## Trubadur

Here is Ale Carr somehow magically transporting fiddle styling to the solo cittern:





Check out anything by the duo Hazelius/Hedin on YouTube. Esbjörn Hazelius plays the cittern and Johan Hedin plays nyckelharpa.




Daniel Fredriksson is an exponent of the Nordic låtmandola, but he plays mandora in this piece.

----------

Anglocelt, 

DougC, 

Jim Garber

----------


## Heady

I love these ladies:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...UHqvP9_651Nx6t

----------


## 4 Course Meal

I love this duo, Rydvall / Mjelva on nyckelharpa and hardanger fiddle. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxK9...0lbFOg&index=1

----------

catmandu2

----------


## Gelsenbury

> Here is Ale Carr somehow magically transporting fiddle styling to the solo cittern:


I'm a big fan of Ale Carr's band Basco. Their recordings are their own contemporary acoustic compositions, but I've seen them play traditional folk too.

----------


## Sauli

> Im a huge fan of Irish/Scottish/Asturian folk music, grew up listening to it/playing it. Recently someone suggested I might like some Swedish/Finnish folk music. Ive never heard it but would really like some suggestions if anyone has any! 
> 
> Cheers,
> Derp


Old post but saw it just now. I wonder that no one has mentioned Petri Hakala and Seppo Sillanpää.

----------

Eric Platt

----------


## mandocrucian

Seppo is on the Cafe
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/members/21047-Seppo

----------


## Jim Garber

This just came up on my YouTube feed. I didn't see it posted on this thread. Pump organ, then kantele, then Jarmo Romppanen & Petri Prauda in a wonderful mandolin duo. I love the incredibly ornate intro that Jarmo plays—the ultimate in pulloffs and hammer-ons. If you so desire you can skip to the mandolins which start at 9:15, although the other two non-mandolin pieces are equally interesting musically to me.

Three tunes on mandolins:
Solmagen by Jarmo Romppanen
Anton-pojan Polkka by Yrjö Raja
Lungrenin Menuetti (trad.)

----------

Eric Platt

----------


## Eric Platt

Not on YouTube, but for those who are on Facebook, Tallari has been posting some new videos for the Christmas season. On a number of them Arto Jarvela is playing mandolin. And I can't be certain, but it looks like a Kentucky KM-150 or similar that he's playing. (And for those that keep track, the guitar is a Martin DX1AE.) He had it at FinnFest in Detroit last year. Very played in.

----------


## Dagger Gordon

I have been bumping up this thread for the last 10 years at about this time.
Some of Sweden's top artistes doing Christmas music. Really delightful.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...hlight=folkton

----------

Eric Platt

----------

