Lena Willemark
Ale Möller
Agram
Ale Möller mandola, lute, natural flutes, folk-harp, shawm, wooden trumpet, hammered dulcimer
Palle Danielsson double bass
Mats Edén drone fiddle
Tina Johansson percussion
Jonas Knutsson soprano and baritone saxophones, percussion
Lena Willemark vocal, fiddle, viola
Syster Glas
Agram
Sasom Fagelen
Fastän
Björnen
Samsingen
Per Andsu lietjin
Josef fran Arimatea
Lager och Jon
Blamairi
Slängpolskor
Elvedansen
Simonpolskan
Recorded March and April 1996
ECM 1610
Background
Related Recordings
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Agram represents the second coming of the "Nordan Project" whose 1994
release Nordan was highly acclaimed. Defined by its co-leaders vocalist
Lena Willemark and multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller as "a meeting-place for
Swedish folk musicians and musicians from the world of improvisation,"
the group's music is based upon, but not limited by, the Swedish folk
tradition. Willemark and Möller select the songs, some of which are
hundreds of years old, and write new material and fresh arrangements.
Möller's unorthodox biography has included extended stopovers in rock and
jazz and Greek music on the way to his current, and enduring, commitment to
Swedish folk. Willemark, the daughter of a forest-keeper, embodie's the
musical tradition giving it new life with her stunning vocal abilities.
Together, the Nordan Project is concerned both with the preservation and
the rejuvenation of the folk tradition.
Möller and Willemark met ECM's Manfred Eicher by chance in 1992 when the
musicians were appearing at a folk-festival while the producer was in town
for a Arvo Pärt premiere. Over the next year and half they discussed the
form that their collaboration should take and the Nordan Project was born.
A key figure in its line-up is bassist Palle Danielsson, who has been
associated with ECM almost from the beginning of its history. He has been a
member of several important ECM bands including Keith Jarrett's
"Belonging" group, the Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet, the quartets of
Enrico Rava and Charles Lloyd.
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