124: Møya og Myten, by Eplemøya Songlag

Eplemøya Songlag (Norway)
Møya og Myten (2012)
10 tracks, 43 minutes
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Norway is probably the most stunningly beautiful place I have ever been. The forests and fjords, the beaches and the cliffs of Rogaland feel like they’re straight out of a fairytale. It wouldn’t have surprised me to just catch a wandering bard or a wizard strolling around the countryside there. What’s perfect is that Norwegian folk music has exactly the same vibe. Its melodies are melancholy, and its lyrics similarly so; the timbre of its most iconic traditional instrument, the hardingfele, a fiddle with many sympathetic strings that is usually played double-stopped, sounds so spacious that it echoes the vastness of the landscape. It all sounds suitably ancient – if you caught a wandering bard or a wizard strolling around the countryside, this is the stuff they’d be whistling.

Eplemøya Songlag are a trio of singers, Wenche Losnegård, Anja Eline Skybakmoen and Liv Ulvik, and they bring an interesting take on Norwegian folk music. Of the three, only Ulvik comes from a folk singing background; Losnegård and Skybakmoen are both jazz singers. These different approaches allow them to update the traditions in their own way, while keeping the essence and sonic meaning of the style very much rooted in place. Considering that 66% of the group have their feet in the jazz realm, it would be a real stretch to call this music jazz in any capacity; in fact, even the elements that they bring to it don’t scream jazz, either. I think what that experience in jazz does bring the trio is an ability to look at the traditional music from a different direction, to hear where there may be space for innovation, sometimes in the smallest places, like a melodic flick or an otherwise unexpected note in a chord. There’s also points where they allow the music to stray into different territory, sometimes bringing in a classical influence, sometimes using joik, a song style of the Sámi people indigenous to the far north of Scandinavia.

Even though this album is entirely a capella, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the instrumental side of the tradition is completely abandoned. The trio’s voices often come together in a way that evokes the hardingfele. It’s especially obvious in a piece like ‘Skjoldmøyane’ – the way their voices dance around the tune, form drones that drop in and out and even make little onomatopoeic noises resembling pizzicatos, all give the impression of three voices as one singular instrument.

Usually, traditional Norwegian folk music appeals to me specifically because of how ancient it sounds, but Eplemøya Songlag’s skill is really impressive: they make their songs sound at once ancient and cutting-edge, and like they wouldn’t feel out-of-place in a modern-day music club or in that fairytale world of my imagination. And they do it all with their voice.