 There it is. The official announcement. After three years in my birth-country of Switzerland, I am finally going back to the country that feels like my true home : Sweden. For real.
I've been wanting to go back for a loooong time but it took so very long to prepare and there were hard moments and times of doubt aswell. Now, despite the bittersweet feeling of leaving behind many things and the anxiety about what's to come, I'm sure and ready. I'm currently in my VW-van on the way up North with all my stuff with me. This move is the reason why I've been not very musical lately (you might have noticed if you checked my agenda) : there has been so much going on that I didn't have much time to do music. This is gonna change as soon as I'm stabilized ! And this is actually even starting very soon, as I'll be at Korrö folkmusikfestival on saturday and at Nordic Fiddlers' Bloc's camp in the beginning of august ! Then... we'll see ! Have the nicest end of july and see you soon !
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You might have noticed I'm often up to shenanigans with dutch musicians lately... well here comes a new one : I've been invited by guitarist Philip Steenbergen to record a melody and some accompaniement lines on his upcoming album ! I'm very excited about this project because it's quite different from my usual scandinavian music's world, it broadens a lot my musical horizon, also Philip and soundtech Erwin Tuijl are very creative, inspiring, crazy musicians.  pic Erwin Tuijl That's why we all three spent a day in studio in Utrecht just after my little tour with Svall Duo. We recorded the tune that was planned but also half-improvised new tracks for other tunes, varied stuff implying chops and even shaking the whole nyckelharpa (it's doing fine, no worries).
I'm really looking forward to this album to come out ! Check Philip's homepage and stay tuned ! Svall Duo will imitate the Easter hares and bring eggs - ahem no, sorry : tunes ! and energy ! to the following locations during the long week-end : Leuven in Belgium, Nijmegen in the Netherlands and Zürich in our native Switzerland. I am very much looking forward to see all of you again ! Also there's a little bonus for the Utrecht people, in the form of a solo concert of mine in the very nice and intimate place of the amazing Meidi. She will actually join me on gamba and fiddle, aswell as the great Hanna de Wijs van Gorcum on nyckelharpa and fiddle, for a couple of tunes. Don't miss that special event if you're in that area !!  Svall Harps is "the other half" of Svall Duo, kindof. It's composed of the talented Sara Buffler on harp and vocals with myself on nyckelharpa and fiddle. We play quite a big deal of scandinavian tunes but also balfolk things and some of our own compositions. We got to play out première at the amazing festival Balfolk Dansstage in Enschede in the Netherlands, 1st to 3rd of march 2019. We will be playing at the open ball on saturday evening and also teach three scandinavian dances workshops, yes, three : polska, halling, slängpolska & springar. Sounds promising, hm ? Check all infos there and come to Dansstage to learn a lot about dancing and to hear us for the first time on stage !  One week ago in Prague, my duo Knep played, as announced, its very last balfolk gig. The festival (Prague Balfolk Immersion) was a blast, the organizing team was incredibly friendly, the other bands were just an amazing selection of super talented and interesting people, and the audience was so loving and enthusiastic I got some tears on stage.  An enormous thank you to all the people who have supported Knep during all its life, it has been a crazy and very demanding project but no regrets, everything was worth it, thank you to all the organizers who have booked us across Europe, thank you to the crazy audiences, thank you to all the friends helping us : Kris & Tim & Jolanda of Knupia of course, my family, Elke, roadie-Robin, Lucas, Lucas, Helena, Elena, Ansgar, Lars, Mikulas, Delphine, Beat, all the beloved Dutchies, the friendly Germans, the cute Swiss, the amazing Czech, the beautiful Swedes, the great Belgians, and all the ones I can't name but hold dear in my heart. And last but not least thank you Pascal for having been my partner-in-crime with this crazy, silly, half-swedish octopus-themed project, thanks for your music, your energy, your ideas and all we shared. Knep has been the start of my musical life and I will never forget it ! And now... what ?  Well, I'm currently putting a lot of energy into my new project Svall, with its two "branches" Svall Harps and Svall Duo. My project Skoga Obscura is currently on a break, I will talk more about that soon.
I am also teaching quite a lot, to very enthusiastic students on fiddle and nyckelharpa, it's a bliss to have them. Teaching also includes in a way the monthly scandi jam sessions I organize in Switzerland, and this will go on until I move out. I am also going on with the Scandi Folk Nerd videos and I have the 2019 resolution of putting more energy into my Patreon page, to really make it develop and thrive and be super interesting for the scandinavian music nerds out there. I am also processing lots of ideas about my solo playing, mostly for balfolks but also concerts, I hope to be able to get some stuff started soon and thus have something substantial to tell you ! But we'll see, nothing is certain on this point and I have a lot going on in my non-musical life aswell at the moment. Stay tuned, including the resonance strings ! Here are some numbers : - 4.5 years - 5 countries, soon 6 - around 973.86 friends (estimation) - 2 albums - several dozens of workshops - 214 cm of hair combined (roughly) - 8 instruments (13 counting the vegetables) - 1 regular stage octopus These summarize the history of Knep. A history that is sadly coming to an end. This duo has been through crazy challenges, such as living at 2000 km of distance and loosing Gertrude quite many times. It was all worth it ! Your support, your smiles, your crazing hallings and simply your dancing to our music has made every balfolk and concert worth the travels, rehearsals, organization and hours of arguing on who should get to play the intro. However, today Pascal and Emelie are taking different paths in life and we both feel that we won't be able to go on with Knep. Our two last gigs are going to be great ones : - SILVESTER FOLK in Leipzig during New Year's Eve (infos) - PRAGUE BALFOLK IMMERSION, 25 to 27 january 2019 (infos) So if you want to see Knep live a last time, come to one (or both) of these events and dance your mind off ! Yours, with carrots, animals and crazy hair, /Emelie, Pascal & Gertrude AKA Knep 
So here comes my video "Huldra" :
The tune is : sen polska (slow polska) efter Göran Lång från Haverö, Medelpad, Sweden.
Thousand thanks to Caro Fährmann for the recording and Olga for covering me in dried leaves and taking all the pictures.  These days I'm working on a coming videoclip ! The tune was recorded quite a while ago already but the work on the visual part was finished just last week. It's a serie of pictures which will be arranged as a stop-motion little story about a huldra, a creature from the scandinavian folklore.For the costume, I was strongly inspired by the beltestakk, the folk costume of Øst-Telemark region in Norway, but mixed with other elements as I imagined a huldra would pick clothes a bit everywhere in an attempt to try looking like a normal human being. So here's a little teaser picture for the video, probably online later this week - if everything goes well.
(Oh and yes, I do look extremely pale on the pic, don't get worried about my health, it's only very white makeup !)  EN - Some months ago, I opened my Patreon page in the hope to support myself a bit, especially about my Scandi Folk Nerd videos, which are taking me a lot of time and effort to make and seem to help a bunch of people to play and understand scandinavian folk music. So if you like these videos and/or my music in general, you can help me on Patreon, there are different options of pledging with counterparts, such as sheet music (with bowings) for the tunes I teach in videos and exclusive recordings ! Even if you can't/don't want to pledge, you can show your support by following the Page anyways and interacting with my posts there. SE - För några månader sen har jag öppnat min Patreon sida. Den finns mäst för att understödja mina Scandi Folk Nerd videoer, som tar massa tid och energi att göra ! Så om du tycker om dessa videoer och/eller min musik, du kan hjälpa till på Patreon. Det finns några olika möjligheter, med olika belöningar, till exempel noter (med stråkmönster) till låtarna jag lärar ut i mina videoer och exklusiva inspelningar. Tack så mycket för hjälpen ! FR - Cela fait déjà quelques mois que j'ai ouvert ma page Patreon afin de soutenir ma musique et notamment mes vidéos Scandi Folk Nerd. Ces vidéos me demandent beaucoup de temps et d'énergie mais semblent aider pas mal de gens à comprendre et jouer la musique scandinave. Si vous souhaitez soutenir ces vidéos et/ou ma musique en général, vous pouvez ainsi le faire via Patreon, avec diverses contreparties, par exemple les partitions (avec coups d'archet) des morceaux que j'enseigne en vidéo ou des enregistrements exclusifs. Toute aide est une grande aide et me permet de continuer ma musique et mon enseignement de celle-ci. Merci infiniment !
You might have noticed there's a new page to this website ! It's a list of builders, courses and teachers for nyckelharpa. It will expand with time. Please send me all infos you could have on builders/courses still missing on the list, or details about how instruments by a specific builder sound like. Thanks a lot ! http://waldken.weebly.com/nyckelharpa.html  |
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