22-23/5
Nordan: Lena Willemark& Ale Möller
Ale and Lena discovered each other as musical partners in the mid-1980s, united by a shared love of older folk traditions and a desire to explore new pathways within them. They have performed together in countless settings, creating music rooted in – but never limited by – the Swedish folk tradition (Frifot, Jul i Folkton, Enteli, among others). Both jointly and individually, they have been honored with numerous prestigious awards for their decades-long contributions to Nordic folk music: royal medals, the Swedish Government’s Honorary Export Award, the Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award, the City of Stockholm’s Honorary Award, and induction into the Swedish Music Hall of Fame, to name just a few.
As two of the most influential voices in Swedish folk music, Ale and Lena have cultivated their distinctive artistic identities for nearly fifty years. With the Nordan project, they turn to the medieval ballads – a captivating branch of the tradition where music and poetry carry deep layers of meaning. These stories resonate today, reminding us that throughout history humans have shared the same emotional landscape: love, sorrow, joy, loyalty and spirituality. Yet our ways of approaching life’s great questions have changed, especially our relationship to the magical and the mystical. Nordankväden opens the door to a hidden world of folklore and imagination, holding both the grand and the intimate. These are medieval ballads, modes and melodies that have survived for centuries. The music blends traditional and newly composed material, performed in extended suites that move through an acoustic soundscape enriched with electronic elements, all while preserving the depth and spirit of older folk music.
The Nordan project originated 30 years ago, when the iconic 1994 album Nordan was released on ECM – a breakthrough recording that sold over 60,000 copies, earned a Swedish Grammy and toured extensively to sold-out concert halls, introducing the Swedish song tradition to a broad international audience. Nordankväden marks both a fresh beginning and a continuation of that artistic journey, this time in collaboration with producer Hampus Norén (Sara Parkman, Shida Shahabi, Teodor Wolgers, Sofia HK, among others) and the label collective Supertraditional, who, like Möller and Willemark, have become leading innovators in reimagining what traditional music can be.
On stage:
Ale Möller – mandola, shepherd flutes, hammered, dulcimer, shawm (”skalmeja”), cows horn, backing vocals
Lena Willemark – main vocals, fiddle, viola
Dan Berglund – double bass)
Anna Möller – violin, viola d’amore, backing vocals
Tina Quartey – percussion
Johan Graden – harmonium, keyboard, piano, backing vocals
Ale and Lena discovered each other as musical partners in the mid-1980s, united by a shared love of older folk traditions and a desire to explore new pathways within them. They have performed together in countless settings, creating music rooted in – but never limited by – the Swedish folk tradition (Frifot, Jul i Folkton, Enteli, among others). Both jointly and individually, they have been honored with numerous prestigious awards for their decades-long contributions to Nordic folk music: royal medals, the Swedish Government’s Honorary Export Award, the Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award, the City of Stockholm’s Honorary Award, and induction into the Swedish Music Hall of Fame, to name just a few.
As two of the most influential voices in Swedish folk music, Ale and Lena have cultivated their distinctive artistic identities for nearly fifty years. With the Nordan project, they turn to the medieval ballads – a captivating branch of the tradition where music and poetry carry deep layers of meaning. These stories resonate today, reminding us that throughout history humans have shared the same emotional landscape: love, sorrow, joy, loyalty and spirituality. Yet our ways of approaching life’s great questions have changed, especially our relationship to the magical and the mystical. Nordankväden opens the door to a hidden world of folklore and imagination, holding both the grand and the intimate. These are medieval ballads, modes and melodies that have survived for centuries. The music blends traditional and newly composed material, performed in extended suites that move through an acoustic soundscape enriched with electronic elements, all while preserving the depth and spirit of older folk music.
The Nordan project originated 30 years ago, when the iconic 1994 album Nordan was released on ECM – a breakthrough recording that sold over 60,000 copies, earned a Swedish Grammy and toured extensively to sold-out concert halls, introducing the Swedish song tradition to a broad international audience. Nordankväden marks both a fresh beginning and a continuation of that artistic journey, this time in collaboration with producer Hampus Norén (Sara Parkman, Shida Shahabi, Teodor Wolgers, Sofia HK, among others) and the label collective Supertraditional, who, like Möller and Willemark, have become leading innovators in reimagining what traditional music can be.
On stage:
Ale Möller – mandola, shepherd flutes, hammered, dulcimer, shawm (”skalmeja”), cows horn, backing vocals
Lena Willemark – main vocals, fiddle, viola
Dan Berglund – double bass)
Anna Möller – violin, viola d’amore, backing vocals
Tina Quartey – percussion
Johan Graden – harmonium, keyboard, piano, backing vocals